Day 719

• The NFL has announced five international games for next season, including the first regular-season game in Germany.  Tampa Bay will participate in that game.
• An interesting statistic:  With the final NFL team going this year, every NFL team will now have done a London game.
• That team?  The Green Bay Packers.
• It's not that much a shock:  The new rules now mandate an international game for every NFL team every eight seasons.
• It appears as if regular-season MLB games will be cancelled at the end of the day today -- the sides are nowhere close.  And I fully forecast the talks will stop once regular-season games start getting canned.  My current belief:  If there is not a player capitulation, there will be no season this year.  If there is, we know they can condense a season down to about 2 1/2 months and 60 games.  The drop point for that is probably mid-June.   
• For the first time, Sports Illustrated has at least a Daily Cover on the Winter Paralympics, ostensibly starting Friday.
• Brett Netzer, a former top draft pick of the Red Sox, was fired over the weekend for going on a racist, anti-semitic, homophobic/transphobic, anti-mask/vaxx rant on his social media.
• Ah, the success of "Project Wolverine"...  Derek Jeter has sold his stock in the Florida Marlins and resigned as their CEO.

Putin's War, Day 5

• Sporting personalities defending the Ukraine now include world Bellator (MMA) welterweight champion Yaroslav Amosov and top ten pound for pound boxer Vasily Lomanchenko.
• I did not know this:  Vitali Klitschko is actually now the mayor of the capital city of Kyiv.
• ... who, in anticipation of the push on the city by the Russians, has banned all alcohol sales in the city to get it's citizens clear-headed and prepared to fight.
• Several WNBA players hone their skills in a Russian women's basketball league.  They're leaving.
• This week's Time magazine has Putin on it's cover -- the appropriate part of the picture is ripped off to show a Hitler mustache.  And people wonder why some conservatives in this country are cheering the son of a bitch on.   
• The United States, this morning, has frozen all Russian Central Bank assets and prohibited anyone from doing business with the Russian Central Bank.
• Britain will freeze all Russian bank assets in the next few days.
• Talks are beginning between Ukraine and Russia, but it appears, as completely expected, Russia is not taking them seriously, sending an infuriatingly-low-level delegation to the talks.
• In a move which has to indicate the seriousness of the situation, Switzerland, the country of neutrality, is now behind the EU sanctions.
• At least one Ukranian mayor has, however, been arrested for high treason -- handing over his city to the Russians.
• The Secretary of Defense in the USA says three-fourths of the troops which were set to invade Ukraine have done so for the Russians, they are about 15 miles out from the capital, trying to encircle it, but their movement remains "slowed".
• Chelsea owner Roman Abamovich has been requested by the Ukranians to take part in peace talks.  Word is, he's accepted.
• The President of the Ukraine has signed a letter intending to ask for admission to the European Union.
• No Russian ships in British ports now.
• Most experts now believe a far more brutal "Plan B" for the Ukranian people is in the cards, now that Russia hasn't won this war in a short time.
  
• The Wagner Group, a group of Russian mercenaries, appears to be involved in the fight on Putin's side, according to the New York Times and senior US officials.
• It appears as if Russia believes they are winning and, also, that the West is lying to it's citizens and the shock of the victory will be no less than "biblical".
• The talks have ended, according to Russian news agency TASS.  Another news source says a second round of talks may be planned.
• 53% of Finns now support joining NATO.
• There is now word that the "Go Fuck Yourself!" Ukranians may have actually been taken prisoner instead of killed immediately.
• American terrorist Lauren Bobert said the Canadian people needed liberty -- she said it at the annual Trump fuckfest that's the CPAC meeting.
• Hungary will NOT support the European effort to transport weapons to aid the Ukraine.  I guess that now makes three -- Chechnya, Belarus, now Hungary...   
• Word this morning:  FIFA HAS EXPELLED RUSSIA FROM THE QATAR WORLD CUP.
• ... and from all FIFA and UEFA competition until at least Euro 2024.

Day 718

Two major soccer incidents in Brazil on Saturday:

• The match between city rivals Gremio and Internacional in Porto Allegre was called off after Gremio's bus was shelled with rocks and players injured.
• Several players of the Brazilian side Parana, with five minutes until relegation to the second division, were attacked with metal bars by enraged fans of their side.  Police had to fire stun grenades to clear the pitch.

And that's not all this week:

• A similar attack to the Gremio one happened in Salvador, where players of the Bahia side were attacked.

Other news:

• The Players Association is not pleased with the progress of talks to end the MLB lockout, but they will talk a seventh straight day, with the sceptre of Opening Day being shoved back less than 48 hours away, by estimates.
• Phil Mickelson's situation with the PGA Tour and his sponsors continues to darken, given his statements in support of the Saudi-backed breakaway tour.  The American Express Championship will no longer have him as host of it.
• Workday has canned their relationship with Mickelson, and his clubs sponsor, Callaway, is pausing theirs.
• Seven of the top ten men's college basketball teams lost Saturday, a scant two weeks from Selection Sunday.  It is the first time in history seven of the top ten teams fell in the same day.  It's been five years since six have.

Putin's War, Days 3 and 4

Saturday:

• In what may be the single-largest sanctions move yet, Russia, after some recalcitrance, is being decoupled from the SWIFT bank payment network, largely cutting off the nation from the world banking community.
• Chelsea's owner, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, has given control of the club to the charitable trustee foundation -- anticipating sanctions and perhaps a demand by the FA to sell the club.
• Though Alex Ovechkin has condemned the war, Dominic Hasek believes that not only is Ovechkin a chickenshit, but that the NHL needs to immediately ban ALL Russians from the league.
• On the battlefield, it appears that, though the Russians are losing to a degree infuriating Putin (he thought this thing would be over by now!), they have entered the second-largest city in the country and more-than-sporadic street fighting has been noted in the capital, Kyiv.
• Both Poland and Sweden are now refusing to play Russia in the World Cup Qualifier playoffs at all, regardless of the match location.

Today:

• Looks like some form of talks may be on the table, but Putin has put his nuclear deterrent on high alert.  And if this isn't proof this isn't a false flag to distract from one thing or another -- think!  If Biden does that, we take a fucking nuclear detonation somewhere in the United States.  But most of you on the Right are too fucking stupid to get that.   
  
• Not only that, but it appears that is the response to sanctions.  Get ready, for only the third time in American history, for DEFCON 2.  The other two were the September 11 attacks (partial) and the Cuban Missile Crisis (complete).   
• At least one unofficial source has at already at partial DEFCON 2 because of Putin placing his deterrent on high alert.  The official current DEFCON is NOT made public for security reasons.
• FIFA has banned all Russian teams with immediate effect.  Same situation as the IOC, can't identify with the Russian flag and colors.  No World Cup ban yet.

Day 716

• Reports have Troy Aikman going to a new high-profile top-dollar ESPN Monday Night Football crew -- which now apparently has Al Michaels in it's sights after long-time FOX Aikman partner Joe Buck.  Michaels is also being rumored going to Amazon for the Thursday Night package.

Putin's War Day 2

• Former World Heavyweight Boxing Champions the Klitschkos will be fighting for Ukraine.
• The Olympic Truce has been formally declared violated by the IOC in a statement condemning the attacks.  The Truce technically extends from seven days before the Opening of the main Games to seven days after the Paralympics ends in mid-March.
• Additionally, the IOC has called upon world sports bodies to stop all events in Russia and Belarus.
• The Russian Grand Prix has been scrapped by Formula 1.
  
• Russia has been expelled from the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Various statements of support for the Ukraine have permeated Thursday sporting events.
• Poland, Czechoslovakia, and other countries will now ban all Russian aircraft from their airspace as the UK did at midnight GMT.
• One side or the other or both appear to be firing on civilians as well.
• Russian vs. Ukranian cyber-attacks have also begun.
• Chechnya has thrown itself behind Putin and will devote several thousand troops to an occupation force.
• At least one call to the EU has had Ukranian President Zelensky tell them he may be about to die.
• At least 2800 killed on the Russian side of the equation in Day One, according to Russia's deputy defense minister.
• Russia is moving on the capital as we speak.  Kyiv is preparing for urban warfare.
• The EU will also be freezing all Putin bank assets as of today.
• American computer companies have stopped shipping to Russia.
• Manchester United has severed sponsorship ties with Russia.
• UH OH!!!!!!!!!!!  Reports this morning that a Japanese and a Moldovan ship in the Black Sea have both been shelled by Russian forces.
• In a moment of ultimate bravery -- an off-shore island was about to be taken by the Russians, and they told 13 Ukranian guards to lay down their arms and surrender.
• Their response:  "GO FUCK YOURSELF"
• They were all killed without mercy.
• And now I see #BidenIsADisgrace trending on Twitter at 9 AM this morning.  And it is clear to me that the rural-heavy Republican Party in this country wants the American cities THERMONUKED.  Holy shit, are you fucking stupid...  Putin's main threats right now against the West are full-scale nuclear escalation -- against the UK, US, and anyone else who wants to try their luck. 
• For now, it appears the coastal city of Odessa and the country's navy are tonight's main targets.

Putin's War Day 1

• Doesn't sound like his domestic economic people are taking this well.  As of about 1:30 Moscow time, the Russian MOEX stock market has lost over 45% of it's value just since the invasion started.
• The Ukraine wants a motion with the UN declaring Russia not be a member, since they were never legally admitted after the breakup of the USSR.
• Much of Eastern Europe is closing off it's airspace.
• All air flights are avoiding Ukranian airspace.
• The UEFA Champions' League final will be moved, once an alternate site is found.
• Significant anti-war protests in St. Petersburg and Moscow.  That's not going to end well for any of you.  
• All Russian or Russian-registered aircraft are banned from the UK as of midnight GMT tonight.
• Canada has sanctioned 58 Russian counterparties, freezing their assets in the country.
• Could be USA cyberattacks against Russia to prevent Russian military actions.  Start kissing your Internet goodbye, people...   
• As well as American export controls against the Putin regime.
• Some previous comments are coming back on a lot of the right-wing media, including Tucker Carlson openly rooting for Russia before Trump's first impeachment.
• One of the first targets the Russians have successfully seized:  Whatever is at the Chernobyl power plant.
• President Biden has cut all communication with Putin, and believes Putin wants the full Soviet Union back.   ... and I'm not sure he even wants to stop THERE anymore.   
• It appears the annexation of Belarus is only a matter of time.  They are assisting in the Ukranian invasion.
• Sean Penn is in the Ukraine and is going to make a documentary on the invasion.

Day 715

• Monday is the drop date for MLB.  If they have no deal by then, the season starts getting lopped.
• In the USWNT's 5-0 win over Iceland to win the annual SheBelieves Cup, the team wore wristbands in support of transgender youth, being targeted (probably for death) by two of the most asshole Republican governors out there (TX, FL), on top of the bitch in South Dakota and what SHE'S already done..  I do eventually plan to do a post on all the anti-trans shit going on in sports -- but I need to do it right.  It may need outside consultation.   
• Greg Norman, one of the biggest backers of a Saudi-led breakaway tour, blasted the PGA Tour today for "bullying" players away from the effort.
• Troy Aikman has left FOX' NFL broadcasts.
• None of the three other teams in Russia's "pod" of the UEFA World Cup Qualifiers will travel to Russia to play them.  Poland has to play them there first.  If Russia wins, they host the pod final as well.

There it is -- he just pulled the trigger.

Vladimir Putin has just begun to take the Ukraine.  The attack started about two hours ago.

I think, for the record, he has been looking for this for at least the last eight years, since the whole Sochi debacle and far before.

I think people do not understand this fact:  This is the reason that Putin is The Most Powerful Man In The World.  He's old-school USSR with new-school cunning and does not screw around.

That's not supporting him.  That is fact.

There is the very real chance that World War III has started tonight.  It's not going to be a lightning war -- it's not going to be one of those things that's over in a few days or a week.  Each of the two previous world wars went four years.

There's already very real discussion that he's going to take the entire USSR, then into Poland and the like.

I'm thinking his eventual goal is to wipe Western Europe off the map and take the whole shot.

But I told ya.  I did.  Just get the propaganda instruments home first.

Now it's game on.

Day 714

• Aw, Phil, you went and did it, didn't you?  Not only is he backpedaling on his pro-Saudi-backed alternate-tour stance...
• But now he's lost two long-time sponsors as a result of opening his trap:  Amstel Light and KPMG.  With thanks to my anonymous friend golf fan who alerted me to the news.
• Latest tennis incident:  Alexander Zverev, thrown out of the Mexican Open for hitting the umpire chair with his racket in a doubles loss.  As a result, default, out of the rest of the tournament for the singles, no prize money.  He was the defending champion.
• So he's going to lose some more money for that, and could be suspended if this is deemed a repeat offense from a six-figure fine he got for similar at the 2019 Western and Southern Open...
• But he's got a bigger problem:  Domestic violence investigation with the ATP from last October.
• Continued disputes on the Brian Flores-Miami situation:  Flores claims an NDA was asked for as part of a severance settlement and he refused.  Miami denies the report.

Carron J. Phillips is an herb.

Carron, it sounds to me that you want the Black man to throw sucker punches all over the place.

How else do you explain the TRIPE you threw on Deadspin this afternoon, claiming that the reason Wisconsin coach Mark Gard was not suspended was because he was White.

And that Juwan Howard had the right to go BLM on his ass...

Really...

FUCKING.  REALLY...

Day 713

Tick tock in Ukraine...  He's about to move...  

• Two territories effectively controlled by Russian-backed rebels have now been declared independent states from Ukraine by Putin -- and he's rolling in troops to ensure it sticks.  Effectively annexing the two states...   
• I figured he'd wait a bit longer...   
• Be very mindful here!  Joe Biden cannot win another election, and, hence, has about 36 months before the GQP literally strings him up near the Washington Monument.  The only way the Democrats don't lose enough in the elections to risk getting outlawed completely in various rural portions of this country is that the Fall 2022 elections do not happen.
• People are talking "Wag The Dog".  If you're right, this goes nuclear and goes nuclear fast.  He'll leave the GQP a smoking radioactive crater where America once stood if all the conspiracy theories about COVID being fake, the election being stolen, and "Wag The Dog" have any merit whatsoever.
• But one thing is for absolute certain.  It's "Game On".  Putin is finally moving, as he's basically wanted to play at for at least eight years now.
• And two more realities:  Vladimir Putin is the most powerful man in the world, and America is neither the greatest nation on Earth or even CLOSE.   
• UEFA is considering moving the Champions League final from Russia as a result of all this.

Sports:

• DeShaun Watson can be deposed in nine of his sexual assault suits.  He's DONE.  And, with that, so are the Texans.  
• The equal-pay lawsuit by the US Women's Soccer Team has been settled for $24,000,000.  Not enough.  Without that women's team, there is NO meaningful US Soccer.  
• Final all-access viewing numbers are in for the Olympics:  Down over 40% from Pyeongchang, down 26% from Tokyo.

Day 712

• From the "Things That Make You Go 'Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...'" File:  A St. Louis law student has, in a blog post last week, laid out a case that he believes evidence exists that E. Stan Kroenke wanted the Rams to throw games their last few years in St. Louis to precipitate a move to Los Angeles.  Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...  
• Keith Olbermann said last week that, with his experience with the 1980's sports work stoppages and labor talks, he believes the 2022 baseball season is, at best, at risk -- and, at worst, forget it!
• He also has sources in the news industry who says Putin has given the go command for the Ukraine.  Just as I'm thinking:  He just has to get his propaganda instruments home from Beijing first.  
• Bob Baffert's Medina Spirit has become the third horse disqualified from winning the Kentucky Derby today, this one for the long-running drug saga of the horse, and the second in three races.  1968's first across the line also got banged for drugs, and Maximum Security was thrown out two years ago for interference which could've felled half the field.
• Mandaloun is the official winner, and since the purse was withheld, Mandaloun's ownership will receive the $1.8 million in question.  I think the fact that two of the last three Kentucky Derby horses to finish the race first have been tossed should not be lost on anyone.   
• Mandaloun raced neither the Preakness nor the Belmont.
• The Big Ten punishments are in for the Juwan Howard incident.  Three players suspended one game, two for Michigan, for visible punches.  Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard fined.  And Howard?  Suspended for the rest of the regular season and a heavy fine.  *sigh*  

The Winter Olympic Virus AND Super Bowl Last Man Standing: An American Institution About To Die As The Legacy of Both?

Was thinking about this doing errands yesterday, and it kinda came to me regarding threads crossing both discussions of the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics, both recently completed.

I know I've mentioned this before, but I do think this merits it's own post.

I want to present some numbers -- most of which I've already put on this blog, but it basically gives two different avenues to a same, and very disturbing, end.

Let's start with the Super Bowl.

There are two numbers I want you to take a look at, and to explain the difference here:  A show's rating is the number of television sets, as a raw percentage, turned on to that show.  A show's share, on the other hand, is the number of television sets which are actually on, as a net percentage, turned on to that show.

Nielsen ratings showed that the rating for Super Bowl LVI was 36.9 -- meaning 36.9% of all television sets in the country watched the game.  This is down 10 points in 10 years.  It was the lowest rating for any Super Bowl in the merger era -- and only the Second "AFL-NFL World Championship Game" (later graduated to Super Bowl II) and Super Bowl III have been lower.

But the even more disturbing number is when you look at the game's share on top of the rating.  Tied with Super Bowl 50, the 72 share the game received is actually the HIGHEST the game has received since Super Bowl XVI FORTY YEARS AGO.  And that meant that 72% of all television sets turned on in the country watched the Super Bowl.

Now, to Sports Media Watch and discussion of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics ratings fiasco.

NBC announced, on the first Thursday, a day in which their ratings (and this was a GOOD NIGHT!) were down a third from the Korean Olympics four years ago, that they had effectively well over half of all viewers on national network broadcast television, claiming they had 2/3 more viewers .than the rest of the networks combined.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the second week were all less than half of the Pyeongchang total, none exceeding nine million -- Wednesday breaking the record with less than SEVEN million.

And when Valieva took the ice on Thursday, only just over 8.5 million watched, that being down over 40% from Pyeongchang.

NBC is on the hook for Paris, Milan-Cortina, Los Angeles, wherever the 2030 Winter Olympics are going to be held (TBD), and Brisbane.

For SEVEN AND THREE-QUARTERS BILLION DOLLARS.  And most of that money has not been spent yet!  They're only through Rio, Pyeongchang, Tokyo, and Beijing.

And, for those who need a reminder:  This may well be one of the reasons that NBC dropped it's main national sports network, NBC Sports Network, at the end of 2021.  NBC has also ceased operation of a separate, more Olympic-sports offseason, themed network.

-------------

So now let's do a degree of further number-digging on the Super Bowl, and then we can come to our thesis:

A scant ten years ago, for Super Bowl XLVI, the game drew a 47 rating and a 71 share.  If you do the math, that indicates about two-thirds of American television sets were turned on to SOMETHING during the Super Bowl.

Now:  With that 37 rating and a 72 share, it's about half.

And, even with the Winter Olympics ratings cratering, they still are well over 60% of all the of the network TV watchers.

To me, that indicates two ominous legacies:

First, the way sports has been delivered to you in the past and present is about to end.

And all you have to do at that point is look at three things:

1. The dissolution of NBCSN and the melding of it's Olympic coverage into a literal 24/7 network on NBCUniversal's major cable network, USA.  This means the end of at least the THIRD and probably final attempt at a subsidiary NBCU sports network.  (Versus, Outdoor Life Network)
2. A 16% drop, in ten years, of how many people are even watching television for the Super Bowl, plus, even with drops of about half the viewers of broadcast television for the Olympics, both parts, it's about the only game in town for broadcast television when it does air...
3. And the money involved.

And then you look at the increasing move in television contracts to Over The Top streaming outlets like Peacock (an increased presence in the 2022 Games, and a large home of much of NBCU's Premier League contract) and Amazon Prime Video (which will be the home of the NFL Thursday contract), as well as Free Ad-Supported Television streaming outlets like Pluto, IMDb TV, Roku, and Netflix for binging various series under the various ownerships, and there's a second situation coming over the horizon...

Is the decades-long existence of the national broadcast television network about to end completely?  

I can't see how NBCUniversal is going to be able to continue to pump out a good $4,000,000,000 or more for the remainder of the Olympic contract if American viewers have ceased to care, no matter the nation's position on the medal table?

I think the continued existence of NBC, as a broadcast television network at all, could well be in danger.  And then you look at the fact that the most-watched television program of the last almost 20 years has either been American Idol when it meant something to America on FOX, or the NFL Sunday night game on NBC, that does not portend well to the current model of American national broadcast television, except maybe for public-service machinations.

And cable is not immune.  ESPN has been bleeding money for years -- I can't see them surviving much longer.

As I say on a number of subjects, stay tuned -- that is, if there's going to be anything to stay tuned to.

Day 711

• Obi Toggin of the Knicks won the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest last night.
• Many NBA fans felt this was below regular Dunk Contest standard.
• Coach K, after leaving the last game at halftime, says it was just exhaustion.
• LeBron James is NOT ruling out another return to Cleveland....  Hoo boy...  Sounds like the Lakers' situation is falling apart FAST!  (To be fair, at least one report appears to make it about playing in the NBA with his son -- as he's said previously he wishes to do.  And he did make clear that, God willing and wherever it happens, he will play his final season with his son.) 
• At her age, OH SHIT!  Queen Elizabeth has COVID and cold-like symptoms.
• Brawl marred the post-game between Wisconsin and Michigan today.  After Wisconsin won by 14, Michigan coach Juwan Howard was in the face of one of the Wisconsin assistants, and his players were trying to separate him -- at which point he swung over the top in a cheap shot, and it quickly disintegrated from there.  I hope, when the Big Ten reviews this, they see that, before the apparent cheap shot by the Michigan head coach, the Michigan players were separating him from the whole situation.   
• A driver shortage in LA has prompted major cuts to bus and rail service in the metropolitan area.
• And the winner of the 2022 Daytona 500 is...  WHO???  AUSTIN CINDRIC???  I know they were talking about half the field being under 30...
• And in a development I just know NECKCAR's base is going to love, second place went to Bubba Wallace!!

The Winter Olympic Virus, The Final Medal Count

It is 2:21 PM on Sunday as I begin to type this in Beijing, China.

Finland has just upset the Illegal Russian Team by a score of 2-1 to win the men's hockey gold medal in the 2022 Winter Olympics.

That is the final of the 109 medal events.

So we can now take a look at the final medals table for these Games.

#1 in medal table and total:  Norway with 16 gold, 8 silver and 13 bronze.

• As has been noted for a couple days, Norway has won both gold and total, and a new Winter Olympic record of 16 gold medals highlight their 37 total medals.  (Old Winter record:  14, Norway 2018, Germany 2018, Canada 2010.  Current total record:  39, Norway 2018)
• 21 medals, including 11 gold, in biathlon and cross-country skiing.
• Two more gold than 2018, two fewer total.
• However, even with the record gold haul, predictions by both Gracenote and Sports Illustrated may have this a disappointing Games for the table champions.  SI had a prediction of 17 gold and 40 overall.  Gracenote went as far as a staggering 21 gold and 44 overall!

#2 in medal table, #3 in total:  Germany with 12 gold, 10 silver, 5 bronze.

• Germany finish a full ten medals behind Norway, and one of the main reasons why is the completely lopsided nature of their medals table.
• They won every sliding event except the women's monobob, seven of the nine total medals in the bobsled otherwise, and a stunning 16 of their 27 medals on the sliding course.
• Two fewer golds and four fewer medals than 2018.
• The 12 golds matched their SI prediction and beat Gracenote's by one.
• The 27 total, however, was two fewer than SI thought and three fewer than Gracenote.

#3 in the medal table and #11 in the total, the hosts from China who had only 15 medals, but NINE gold.

• Pretty much what a regime would want to do with somewhat limited winter resources and talent in their case.
• Six more medals than 2018, where they only struck gold once.
• China, before hosting these Games, had only secured 13 Winter Olympic gold medals.
• Five of the nine golds were in X-Games events.
• SI had China pegged for only five golds, but they didn't make the 17 total that SI predicted.  Gracenote had them down for six gold and 13 total, so even under that degree of a successful Games, they did even better than that!

#4 in the medal table and #5 in the total, the USA -- who broke a three-way tie at 8 golds with 10 silvers, with 7 bronzes giving them 25.

• Still one gold fewer than 2018, but the total count increased by two.
• But if you account for the predictions, the USA can hold it's head high, especially after Schiffrin leaves the Games with a complete zero:  SI had them for only 5 golds (with 13 silvers), but they didn't meet the 27 total predicted.  Gracenote had them for 7 gold and an evenly-split 22 total -- so that is a good result.
• There will probably be much consternation among conservative Americans for Eileen Gu, one of two high-profile American-born athletes who chose, at one point or another, to compete instead for China.  Gu won three medals in freestyle skiing, two golds and a silver.
• Their 4th place on the table was the same as the last two Games.  Even with 25 medals, their fifth place in the total is the worst showing for the Americans since Nagano.
• Ten X-Games event medals highlight the total.
• If the team figure-skating result is reversed, they will pass China for #3 on the table with the ninth gold, and nine silvers to China's four.

#5 on the table, and beating Netherlands by a single bronze medal (third in the women's curling) to get there, Sweden, with 8 gold, 5 silver, 5 bronze for 18 total.

• One more gold, four more total for a good Games for Sweden.
• A fairly well-balanced program, with the 8 golds among six different disciplines.
• However, SI had them for two more golds and four more medals.  Gracenote, by contrast, had them for one fewer gold and only one more medal.

#6 on the table, #9 in the total, the third nation with eight golds, is the Netherlands, 5 silver and 4 bronze for 17 total.

• You've heard this song and dance before:  Of the 17 medals, between short-track and long-track, only one, a bronze in women's skeleton, was not a speedskating medal.
• Matched their gold total from four years ago, but the total dropped by three.
• SI had them for two more golds and three more total.  Gracenote:  The three less total matched SI, but Gracenote got the 8 golds right.

#7 on the table, #6 on total.  Austria, seven gold with Switzerland, but seven silver and four bronze for 18.

• Two more gold and four more medals than 2018.
• Seven Alpine skiing medals, but a fairly diversified portfolio of medals for the country.
• SI had them with two fewer total medals, but with only three gold, so Austria's seven is a great Games under that measure.  Gracenote not only also only had Austria for three gold, but Austria beat their total projection by three.
• One of the better performances per expectation in these Games.

#8 on the table, tied for #12 on total.  Switzerland.  7 gold, 2 silver, 5 bronze for 14 total.

• Two more gold and one less total than 2018.
• SI:  Six gold and 13 total predicted.  So they beat each of those by one.  Gracenote:  Six gold, but they had the total all the way to 21!
• Five golds and nine medals on the Alpine slopes, the rest in the X-Games events.

#9 on the table, but all the way at #2 in the total:  The Illegal Team from the Russian Olympic Committee.  Six gold, but twelve silver and fourteen bronze.  32 total.

• The 12 silvers were the most in the Games, two more than the USA and Germany.
• The 14 bronzes were also tops, tied with Canada.
• Sixteen Nordic medals (four gold) and six figure-skating medals (the other two gold) highlight the total.
• Four more gold and FIFTEEN MORE TOTAL than the OAR total from four years ago.
• The ROC got two more total than SI predicted, but the gold total was about half of what SI predicted (11)  The 32 was also two more than what Gracenote predicted, but Gracenote had them for 10 gold.
• We'll see how much of this actually stands.

#10 on the table, tied for #12 in total.  France, 5 gold, 7 silver, 2 bronze for 14.

• Same number of gold, one fewer total than 2018.
• SI had them doing far better:  8 gold (only got 5) and 21 total (only got 14).  Gracenote:  4 gold and 19.  So France is probably going to have some disappointment heading into Paris.
• Seven biathlon medals and three golds highlight the Games for the French.

#11 on the table, #4 in total, Canada.  One more medal than the USA with 26, but only four gold, along with eight silver and 14 bronze.

• Seven fewer golds and three fewer medals than 2018.
• SI had them for six gold and 23 total (two fewer gold, three more total).  Gracenote:  Six gold, 22 total.  So it's kinda half-empty, half-full for the neighbors to the north.
• 20 medals between speed-skating and X-Games.

#12 on the table, #6 in total, Japan.  Three gold, six silver, nine bronze, 18 total.

• One fewer gold, but that bronze total led them to five more medals than 2018.
• SI had their gold and silver totals flipped for their prediction, the 18 total was on the number.  Gracenote had the gold total right, but one more silver only than they actually got.

Five nations got two gold medals, the top of those on the table (#13) was #9 in the total -- the next hosts, Italy.

• One fewer gold than the three they got in 2018.  But they only got 10 medals in Korea, 17 here!
• Seven speedskating medals and four Alpine medals led the way.
• SI had them for 3 gold but only 10 in the total.  So SI had the same 3-4-3 they got in Pyeongchang.  Gracenote:  Got the two gold right, Italy gor four more in the total.

--------------------------------

• No other nation got more than 10 medals.
• The only maiden broken in these Winter Games is New Zealand's gold medal maiden, and they did it twice!
• The only podium sweep was Germany's in the two-man bobsled.
• Four athletes won five medals apiece at these Games.

1. Johannes Thingnes Boe from Norway is the individual champion, with four biathlon golds and one bronze.
2. The Illegal Russian Team's Alexander Bolshunov headed the cross-country charge for the ROC, three golds, a silver, and a bronze.
3. Marte Olsbu Roeiseland of Norway was the women's champion of these Games, the only woman to get five medals, also in biathlon, 2 gold, 2 silver, and a bronze.
4. Quentin Fillon Maillet of France, biathlon, 2 gold and 3 silver.

• Five athletes:  Two Dutch speedskaters (one long-track, one short-track), another Norwegian biathlete, a Norwegian cross-county skier, and a Japanese speed-skater, won three medals.
• No American won more than 2 medals at these Games.  Six Americans won 2, three of them members of that figure-skating team situation.
• 23 nations won gold medals at the Beijing Winter Games.  One more than in both 2018 and 2014.
• The final medals table consisted of 29 nations.  One fewer than Korea, three more than Sochi.

Day 710

• Well, it's not like the Steelers were going to win anything anyway next year...  Brian Flores has been hired as a defensive assistant coach for the Steelers.  He has said, however, this will NOT stop his lawsuit.
• Men's Basketball Coach at Georgia may be fired.  Under investigation and suspended for at least one game by the school:  Failure to report a physical altercation at halftime of a loss to LSU between an assistant and his director of player personnel.  Georgia is trying to hold off on reports saying Tom Crean has already been fired for the incident.  The school's record indicates he may not be long for there anyway.  

The Winter Olympic Virus: Day The Last

• Yes, somehow, we've survived another one -- and each one more shocking we survived it than the last.
• At least two American Olympians are coming home to a lawsuit!  Heavy Young Heathens have sued everybody for Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier using the song "House of the Rising Sun" for their short program.  And when I say everybody, about the only three relevant entities not sued are the IOC, the Beijing venue, and the audience!  US Figure Skating, NBC, the pair, and the USOPC have been sued for copyright infringement.
• And the CAS has (correctly) said no to any team figure-skating ceremony in Beijing.
• IOC President Thomas Bach and Chinese President Xi Jinping met multiple times during the Games.  Not sure why this is a story, even with Xi being a tyrant and all...  
• Two athletes will be COVID-isolated past the end of the Games.
• Another political row:  Chinese Taipei wants sanctions against one of it's speedskaters for apparently wearing a mainland China suit in practice.

Story popped up a couple days ago about US pairs figure skater Timothy LeDuc.  

• They became the first-ever non-binary Winter Games athlete when they took the ice with their partner Ashley Cain-Gribble.
• The pair finished eighth in the pairs competition.  The other United States pair was the pair representing the team in the team competition.
• Outsports has reported 36 LGBTQ+ athletes at these Games.
• Seven members of the gold-medal Canadian women's hockey team are on the list.
• A member of the American silver-medal women's hockey team is also on the list.
• Brittany Bowe, the 500m women's Olympic champion, is also out.
• Olympic women's 1500m champion Ireen Wust is also on the list.
• As is Bruce Mouat of the silver-medal winning Great Britain curling team.
• There may be more, and apologies for missing any others.

---

And with the strains of "Auld Lang Syne" in the National Stadium, the Games of the XXIVth Winter Olympiad have closed with the end of the Closing Ceremony.

The youth of the winter world have been called to Cortina and Milan, Italy in four years time -- four years I fear will change the world forever -- for the XXVth Winter Olympiad.

I would be remiss if I did not thank the gentlemen from the Inside the Games website once again for their tireless work, tireless work which has come at a cost this time, with the entire Valieva situation almost crashing down upon them.

I don't know and do not believe I will be around for Paris 2024.  If I am, I'll be here, hopefully, to chronicle that farce as well.

The Winter Olympic Virus, Day 15, Part Two: Everything Else (???)

• You know, when I called these posts "The Winter Olympic Virus", this was simply a play on COVID!  And "The Five-Ringed Circus" was a blog label long before these Games.  I could not have DREAMED of how appropriate, given the events of the Games, those two labels would be on these Beijing Games.
• Elena Meyers Taylor, denied the chance to carry the USA flag at the Opening Ceremony due to COVID, will carry it instead at the Closing Ceremony on Sunday.
• I'd normally put this in a Daily, because it (at best) is only somewhat-tangentially to the Games, but, President Biden:  Putin made the choice a long time ago to invade the Ukraine.  That could've been a motivation for some of his chicanery as far back as Pyeongchang.  The problem with doing it in the next 7 days is he's got to get his propaganda interests/athletes home first!  If he doesn't, he could risk his entire Olympic team getting blown out of the sky over China or Russia.  Patience, Padawan...   
• The end-of-Games IOC Session starts today -- and, DAMN, should this be interesting, given events in Beijing, and perhaps beyond!!  
• Nah, it really wasn't, I guess...
• The next IOC Session, an off-Games session, will be held in Mumbai, India, as a push is made for a full Olympics to be hosted in the Indian subcontinent.
• The head of the Badminton World Federation, Poul Erik-Hoyer, is stepping down from the IOC -- states personal reasons, but is fighting Parkinson's Disease.
• Juan Antonio Samranch is back as a vice president of the IOC, after his post aiding in the execution of these Beijing Winter Games.
• Yeich Pur Biel is the first refugee to be elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee.  He fled South Sudan and competed in the first Refugee Olympic Team in Rio.  With the advent of that team, the IOC changed it's charter to allow for non-national-affiliated members, with this (not necessarily Biel, but a Refugee Olympic member) probably in mind.
• There will be a fifth medal event held tomorrow -- the mixed-team parallel Alpine skiing event has been postponed to tomorrow.  But if the event is to be held at all, IT MUST BE HELD TOMORROW.  So they have to pray for at least good enough weather to get it in.   
• And, speaking of events where desperation is setting it as to whether they will be allowed held at all:  The marathon cross-country men's event is postponed later in today AND it's distance has been almost HALVED to 28 km.  And that one probably can't go to tomorrow -- they have the women's similar marathon -- which would now actually be a longer-distance event than the men at 30km!   

Medal Count, one day left:

• Norway has won the gold and total.  15 gold, 35 total.
• Norway has both records now, as they bested the USA total in Vancouver by two in Pyeongchang to get to 39.  The 15 golds is a new record.
• Table is NOR 15 golds, GER 11 (including every sliding gold except the women's monobob -- they 1-2'd the women's 2-woman yesterday and one of the greatest bobsledders of all time is looking for a similar feat in the 4-man finale on the last day), China is now 3rd with 9 as the Chinese 4-time world champions won the pairs figure skating over two Russian pairs -- the top FIVE pairs in the event were either Chinese or Russian), USA, NED, and SWE with 8 each (USA has the silver tiebreaker over the other two 9-5, and the Netherlands and Sweden are tied at 8-5-4 as of the moment -- USA is 8-9-7).  
• Sweden may be in the process of breaking that tie late on Day 15 -- they're in the bronze-medal women's curling match and leading by one point.
• Total:  NOR 35, Illegal Russian Team 31, CAN 25, GER and USA 24 each.
• Great Britain, in losing the gold-medal men's curling match to Sweden, is now the 29th nation on the medal table.  Some of the Russian trolls extolling the virtues of their drug regime on Inside the Games have confused me for a Brit, because ITG is a British site!   

The Winter Olympic Virus: Day 15, Part One, The Dark Aftermath Continues

• Somebody for Slate almost got it:  In stating the United States is an Olympics coward, Justin Peters quotes this Tweet from Tom Schad of USA Today for finally explaining why the Olympics is so fucked up:

So, if I understand correctly:

-- IOC said it has to follow CAS ruling
-- CAS criticized anti-doping agencies/flaw in rules
-- WADA blamed RUSADA for not fast-tracking sample
-- RUSADA cited COVID issues at Stockholm lab
-- Bach (and others) point finger at Valieva's entourage

— Tom Schad (@Tom_Schad) February 18, 2022

Let's go through this:

1. There is a grave misconception that the International Olympic Committee runs the Games.  It, at best, administers them on a full-event basis (the individual sports are, in fact, run by the individual world amateur sport sanctioning bodies (the IIHF for ice hockey, FIS for Alpine skiing, ISU for figure skating etc. and so forth) -- and, even then, under limited circumstances, as has now been demonstrated by the drug regime of the New Soviet Union/Putin's Russia for the last eight years running now.  It must follow at least some baseline law, with respect to international arbitration...
2. Which enters the only reason Russia is even allowed Olympic athletes in the first place, the Council for the Arbitration of Sport.  It is CLEAR, after Bach's extraordinary comments on Friday's press conference, that, if the IOC had THE final say, no Russian athletes would be allowed in the Olympic movement (not even as independents) -- AND that this would've been in force since RIO!
3. The Council for the Arbitration of Sports has nullified most of the penalties from the McLaren Report.  All but three of the Sochi medals have been restored.  All eligibility penalties past 2018 have been revoked (even for the two stripped medalists the CAS HAS let stand -- the third was done by the International Biathlon Union).  The procedure for the independent athletes from Russia from Rio (assuming drug-guilt and the athletes had to prove otherwise) AND the full-team track and field/athletics disqualification from the IAAF have also been nullified.
4. The final gavel-decision regarding medals IS the CAS.  Meaning that the Council for the Arbitration of Sport IS the final authority on the Olympic Games, vis-a-vis medals, drugs, competition, etc. and so forth.  The IOC must defer to them.
5. The CAS has basically told WADA to literally pound sand on international athlete-drug enforcement twice now with respect to the Russian drug/doping regime:  After the IOC tried to give proper penalty after the McLaren Report, and here.
6. ANYONE who doesn't believe this started at Vlad Putin and the Russian government is either a fool and idiot, or a pro-Russian troll, the likes of which are also operating under same.  Vlad Putin is old-school USSR.  He UNDERSTANDS, whether you like it or not on this side of the Atlantic, the propaganda power of world athletics, the Olympic Games in particular.  It's one of the reasons he attempted, no uncertain terms, the world's largest doping attempt to rig an Olympic Games since the fall of the Berlin Wall eight years ago on home soil.  And, because of that one and same CAS, he has, for the effective record, SUCCEEDED.
7. ANYONE who doesn't believe that sample was slow-balled to ensure it wouldn't get anywhere in time is a similar fool or Russian troll/agent.
8. And the people who are saying "She's underage!!" are yelling for the right premise, but the wrong reason:  You don't think Valieva hasn't been drugged since age...  ten?  eight??  six???  FIVE???  YOUNGER????  Putin knows the rules and he knows how to break them.  He knew he had the future of figure skating in his government/Olympic program, and knew he could win four gold medals with that girl by suppressing her growth and making her not unlike the Chinese gymnasts who attempted to appear at the Summer Beijing Games underage!
9. And HE KNEW that if Valieva did not reach the WADA age of consent with respect to drug doping, no one could realistically touch her, even IF she was found dirty.
10. RUSADA is fucking lying, full stop.
11. And Valieva's entourage is all but certainly some form of agents or agency of Putin's government.  Full stop there as well.

Even OUTSIDE the legal ability for Russian athletes to fly their flag and anthem, massive governmental interference with the Olympic movement vis-a-vis a state sponsored drug regime in the country CONTINUES.

There is one, but one, and only one penalty:  Full disqualification, RETROACTIVE TO RIO.  All of it.

I have said repeatedly, with respect to the United States Sexual Assault Committee (the "USOPC"), that the USA should be thrown out of the movement as well.  But if we can't deal with this blatant of a fully-extended middle finger to the entire process with Russia, a decade or more in going in THIS iteration and 6-7 years after being EXPOSED AS SUCH in the McLaren Report, how in fucking Hell are we going to deal with the Games' major financial backstop and the sexual-assault and sexual-harassment nature of the selection of many female athletes (and probably more than a few of the men as well -- see some of the track stories which have come out...)?

THAT is the cowardice, and it's not the United States'.  It's that Council for the Arbitration of Sport.  In fact, if there's a non-Russia nation who does NOT want this enforced, it's the USA -- because if we ever do get to the point that the IOC grows a spine, the USA is next and deservedly so!!!

So let's see what Peters' premise is on what the USA COULD do, much less should:

You have one problem with Thomas Bach, Mr. Peters.  You claim the buck should stop with him -- the thing is, it is my belief, especially with the IOC prepared to effectively void two different skating competitions in this program, that Bach and the IOC, given the choice, WOULD expel all Russians from the Olympic movement if the CAS would allow it -- WHICH THEY WON'T.   

He does not have the final authority, as much as that might surprise you.

Peters appears to wish to pressure the USA to depart the Olympic movement voluntarily, using that as a final threat to force the IOC's hand.  He cites the diplomatic boycotts as a full abrogation of leadership -- and he's somewhat correct, redoubled by the rise of the Omicron variant of COVID in the last 6-8 weeks.  We shouldn't be there, and neither should anyone else.

Right now, however, Joe Biden appears to recognize the United States is neither the "greatest country in the world" nor it's most powerful -- and he's right on both ends, if he does so recognize.  China's got us beat on at least one of those fronts, and it's for THAT reason we're at these Games.

Then he goes into the Sha'Carri Richardson whataboutism.

Here's the problem, Mr. Peters, and maybe I need to spell this out for you:

The Council for the Arbitration of Sport has ALL BUT LEGALIZED state-sponsored government-backed doping of Olympic athletes as propaganda instruments of said state and government.

Richardson in her marijuana use , and all American athletes in their doping for decades now, have been doing it wrong!  It's like Sports Bribery in the United States under Mayer vs. Belichick, New England Patriots, and NFL:  It is illegal for an athlete to take a bribe to throw a game on an independent basis.  It is LEGAL for a sports league to demand such throwing of a game.  (And what we may find out eventually in the Brian Flores situation is either where the line is drawn or where the two conjoin.)

If the United States of America had such a state-sponsored Olympic doping regime, it would probably be declared legal under this Council for the Arbitration of Sport.  If you wish to declare cowardice, in any form, by the USA, have the nerve to pull THIS card -- because it's about the only card you can pull vis-a-vis American cowardice.

And AGAIN, I point to the rampant epidemic where many, if not most, of the female athletes chosen to represent the United States in the Games in any capacity have been one or more of sexually assaulted, sexually harassed, or raped outright AS A CONDITION FOR THEIR SELECTION TO THE SQUAD.

The United States is in NO POSITION to exact morality in the manner you state, Mr. Peters -- short of leaving the movement entirely and voluntarily.  

So stop.  Just stop.

• Word late-Friday evening US time:  Kamila Valieva has returned to home soil, to cheering fans in Moscow.
• I'm not exactly sure WHY, but at least the US has appealed for some sort of team-event medals ceremony in Beijing, even though there's no assurance as to what medals they'd get at the end of all of this.  I'd figure they'd refuse, 1972 basketball style!   

Day 709

• The NFL has named a former head of the SEC to look into the Dan Snyder claims. ... more to see if they can get away with keeping him as owner of the Commanders.   
• The NFL will not, at present, look into Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders.  ... because to do so would admit that abuse was their only real purpose.  
• MLB has officially delayed the first spring training games until March 4th, and they will try to meet next week to see if there's a prayer of a new agreement.  BEYOND no chance in Hell of that.  They basically are, right now, at death's door for the start of the regular season on time.   
• One of the new owners of the Venetian in Las Vegas MAY have ties to Jeffrey Epstein.  I'll just let that marinate in your minds.   
• The CFP has formally rejected any current plans for expansion.  Why? There's no point.  You can't have a 6-8-12 team tournament when you can't have more than maybe two relevant college football games a season -- the SEC Championship in December, and that winner playing somebody (sometimes the team they defeated a month before) for the CFP title.   
• Fuck Vince McMahon.  Double-fuck him going to Saudi Arabia this weekend.  But there's one good thing which might happen with WWE this year at WrestleMania.  The Undertaker, about five years overdue, is going to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.  To give you an idea how overdue, the most respected non-Vince wrestling Hall of Fame, Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame, inducted Undertaker...  in 2004!
• Major gas pipeline in the Ukraine blown to bits.  Biden says it's evidence Putin is going to invade.

The Winter Olympic Virus, Day 14: Part Two: The Rest of It (???)

• The second-biggest controversy of these Games is two American women, both born in the United States, but both choosing (an adult by renunciation, and a minor by some other means) to compete for China.
• Born, and according to the Olympic website, still residenced in San Francisco, Eileen Gu had renounced her American citizenship and decided to ski for China (through the birthplace of her mother) in the freestyle skiing events.
• As a result, China has two golds and a silver from her that the USA would get had Gu not renounced.  Gu has been completely slammed in the US social media, as one might expect (and happened to the minor figure-skater who was also born here and chose to skate for China!), but Gu will ski out of these Games probably the biggest positive story of the Games, and probably the biggest positive story for the hosts, who now stand fourth on the table on silver tiebreak to the USA!
• Sports-fixing expert Brian Tuohy, through ESPN's David Purdum, notes that more people bet on the women's bobsled competition which followed the Super Bowl than any other Olympic event at PointsBet -- for the reason Tuohy suggests:  They lost money on the Super Bowl and tried to get it back!

Medal Count through two weeks:

• Any chance the Russians had at catching the Norwegians for the total was gone the moment the final biathlon mass start events yielded four Norwegian medals, including their fifteenth gold.
• That fifteenth gold is a new Winter Olympics record.  Old record was 14, held three ways:  Canada (Vancouver 2010), Norway (Pyeongchang 2018), and Germany (Pyeongchang 2018).
• So Norway will win the gold medal total, Germany is second with 10.  USA and the Chinese hosts have 8 apiece, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland have 7 apiece.
• Total:  Norway will win that too, they have 34 now to Russia's 27.  Canada is third with 24, Germany with 22, USA with 21.
• In the 11 biathlon events of these Games, the Norwegians won 14 of the 33 medals, including six gold..
• Russia has actually bested the Norwegians in one of their best events -- cross-country skiing.  Nine medals to six.
• 21 gold medal countries, 28 overall.  
• The only maiden of any kind broken is the gold medal maiden for New Zealand with Zoi Sadowski-Synnott in the snowboard slopestyle championship.
• Eight medal events tomorrow, four on Sunday.

The Winter Olympic Virus, Day 14, Part One: The Dark Post-Mortem Begins

Most of this material is from Inside the Games:

• Images of Kamila Valieva bawling after her falls have a lot of people condemning those who put her in that position.
• One Russian figure-skating star has written a letter urging Valieva not to quit the sport.  I'm verklempt.  For what she has been put through, she has no place in sport -- and the only technical "fault" of her own is it's her body that's been drugged and pushed, etc.  That said, last night had to be a devastating result for her, as well as Mother Russia.  It's one thing to drug an athlete where the only criteria is speed and/or power.  In a sport, however, where one false move and there goes the gold medal when you hit the ground... 
• The American and Japanese skaters from the team competition will receive Olympic torches from the IOC, as we await the CAS to fully weave it's way through this mess.
• It appears as if the Olympic silver medalist, Alexandra Truskova, has RETIRED ON THE SPOT because of the whole debacle:

What was also possible to hear in the broadcast:

Trusova: “I will never go on the ice again in my life! I hate this sport, I hate it! You can't do it this way! You can't do it this way! Everyone has a gold medal, but not me. You knew everything!"#figureskating #Beijing2022

— FS Gossips (@fs_gossips) February 17, 2022

• An opinion slamming all of us:  (Forgetting, of course, that the only way to prevent something like this is not having Russia in the movement at all -- Valieva is a minor and underage, but it's the RUSSIAN POWERS AROUND HER committing the abuse for gold and propaganda...)  

Child abuse under the guise of Olympic Sport An entire Olympic Movement and the IOC stood by and allowed a 15 year old child to be physically ,mentally and emotionally abused and publicly humiliated . Hatred and or Fear of Russia was more important that child welfare . No shame

— Brian Anthony Courtenay Lewis (@briaclew) February 17, 2022

• (And, for what it's worth, Mr. Lewis, blame the CAS more than the IOC -- if the CAS hadn't stepped in on the McLaren Report, Russia probably isn't even IN the Olympic movement, AND -- at minimum, Valieva never skates in the individual competition.)   
• The CAS has annihilated the anti-doping community in their full verdict allowing Valieva to complete, and completely ignores the all-but-certain means WHY the situation was so delayed in the first place.
• And WADA has condemned the CAS for what it calls "rewriting the code" regarding doping.  You mean legalizing it, under the right circumstances and parameters, do you not, WADA?
• IOC President Thomas Bach has condemned the Russian regime and Olympic Committee for placing such stress on Valieva that she finally cracked last night.  He also has little confidence it's going to get any better for her.
• And the Russian Deputy Prime Minister has condemned Bach for his comments.  No surprise, given the abject contempt the Russians have for the IOC and everything it stands for.
• Bach points out that the moment Valieva fell, the entire entourage (and probably her Russian dopers) gave her the fucking cold shoulder.  Oh gee, what a motherfucking shock.  It may take an appeal from the likes of that one ex-skater to keep her from Siberia.  At FIFTEEN!  And I'm NOT joking!!!   
• Bach had to deal with controversies and problems with the Beijing Games for at least a half a solid hour of today's (Friday Beijing time) press conference.

Day 708

• Formula 1 has fired the series race director and revamped the position because of the error which gave Max Verstappen the 2021 Formula 1 championship.  Next question is whether Michael Masi's firing will eventually result in a reversal of that championship to rival Lewis Hamilton -- either by F1 or through the courts.
• And in another case of both the NFL and the Kansas City Chiefs not getting control of their problems:  Cornerback Chris Lammons is one of the other three men charged with the Pro Bowl-morning assault in Los Angeles which has Alvin Kamara in a lot of trouble.  $5,000 bond posted, next round March 8th.
• For Anaheim Angels staffer Eric Kay has been found guilty of the dispensing of fetanyl to Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs, resulting in his death.  One player may face significant suspension from the game for some of the revelations during the trial, namely distribution of opioids by Matt Harvey.
• Phil Mickelson is throwing his weight behind Saudi Arabia and it's fucking scum to try to gain leverage with the PGA Tour.  Fuck you.  He states in his autobiography that he understands their records and their willingness to execute their enemies, but feels he needs to throw in with them to force needed change.  *facepalm*  Would you like there to be an In Memoriam, Phil, when they find out they're getting played???
• Contrary to popular opinion:  As of right now, Bryson TheShamBeau is NOT.  He decided to take Saudi appearance money for a tournament there instead of a big tournament here, but suffered a fall the Monday before and is recuperating his hip and the like.
• Latest MLB talks are going nowhere, and it appears Spring Training is now officially postponed.  We probably are getting near the drop date for when the regular season starts getting truncated.
• The chancellor of the California State University system, fired today for ignoring the sexual harassment complaints of a senior staffer while he was chancellor at UC-Fresno.

Not Sticking To Sprots: Be Careful What You Wish For, On Any Side...

I usually am not this inclined to do a full-on political/non-sports post, but current world events seem to me to be heading toward a fairly imminent flashpoint.

The situation in Canada with the truckers' embargo seems to be hitting critical mass -- Emergency Measures have been declared by Prime Minister Trudeau in the country several days ago.  Now, word this morning that, starting yesterday late afternoon, the top banks in Canada went offline, at least partially.  One of the Emergency Measures is to cut all bank funds and funding from the truckers' embargo.

Related to the truckers' embargo:  The vaccine situation in the United States is growing increasingly dire, because it's clear that we will never reach a sufficient percentage of the population vaccinated for it to really matter.

The situation in the Ukraine...  The only reason it hasn't gone off yet, I will explain.  It is clear one side or the other WILL go in -- either us or Putin first.  Russia, this morning, has demanded the diplomatic removal of the United States from all of Eastern Europe.

Joe Biden is a complete lame duck.

True inflation is going completely through the roof.

Basically, as I sit here this morning, I have a number of thoughts:

Anyone who is expecting an immediate incursion into the Ukraine had best hold their horses -- but only for a little while longer.  Someone has forgotten the propaganda value of the Olympic Games to Vlad Putin.  Someone has forgotten WHY there is a state-sponsored Olympic doping regime still in Russia -- USSR style!  Vlad Putin is a multidimensional power broker, and that's why he is the most powerful man in the world -- far exceeding any current, recent past, or potential US President.

He's got to get the Games over and get his athletes home.  They are worth more to him as propaganda instruments than anyone can consider.  That medal total for Russia is going to be a big talking point to puff the nation's chest out, especially with war over Ukraine all but certain.

And if that frightens you, the prospect of a Spring war with Russia, I've got the kicker on that for you...

Play this thought process out:  Joe Biden is a lame duck.  Many White Right-ers/Q-Anon-ers want Democrats executed.  There is already fear that, in rural America, the Democratic Party is effectively going to be run out of rural America and made extinct.

What if Joe Biden is going to die the moment the next GQP President hits the table -- AND HE KNOWS IT??  A lot of people are thinking this is "Wag The Dog, Part x".  I'm not so certain it's that quaint.  What if Joe Biden knows his future is a January 6th-level gallows, at some point between November of 2022 and February of 2025?

I'd basically tell all Conservatives:  You want him out, you get him out NOW!!!  You let such a lame duck with that lack of future have the football, he may just use it.

Now, about the vaccines:  There is some talk that the people are, in fact, revolting in Canada and Trudeau is about to lose power.

Here's the problem:  Assume you succeed -- and then explain to me how you have any government left.  I'm not talking changing the government.  I'm talking that governance, on any level, becomes completely impossible going forward.  

Here is what I see happening should the Right succeed, especially in the United States:

This country becomes rural, tribal, and forget getting anything from any distance you cannot feasibly reach.  National infrastructure and probably the concept of a national government become relics of the past.  If the people and the states have all the rights, what need, especially if "Washington" (or wherever would replace it, in the event of a well-placed nuclear bomb) becomes unreachable?

The entire West Coast, probably 50 miles in, becomes an absolute no-go.  If any result otherwise would be desired, a White Militia move on all three West Coast states would have to be required with immediate effect.

The cities basically all get blown to bits somehow, and the national infrastructure breaks forever.  And I'd ask another question:  Say you want to continue as it has been, White Right.  Where are you going to get your stuff from, and where are you going to be able to bring it into port in what is left of the United States once you do?

And then you have this question you need to answer:  If it is unconstitutional for a government to force a vaccine for a worldwide pandemic, a probable biological weapon -- then what IS it constitutional for it to do?  Or is the entire concept of a Federal government -- ANY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT -- an effective illegality, if it cannot protect from something like this?

I have already told my family to prepare for my funeral.  Late last year, I notified them of the conclusion I had drawn:  That if I ever sufficiently get my message across to these White Right people, I'm gone.

Even best case scenario that their IQ is that of your standard kumquat (which it largely is -- see more endemic matters to this blog!): I don't think I have more than about 36 months left to begin with.  I've gotten to the point, especially as it appears that, at least on a local (speaking general, not just specific to mine) level, "law and order", conceptually, is about to become a thing of the past unless you have some degree of importance or "legitimate purpose" going forward, that I am left to enjoy what little time I do have left.

(Holy run-on sentence!)

But keep your ears to the ground, in any event.  I don't believe, by the time we would get to next August or September, you may recognize this country, even as it is now!

The Winter Olympic Virus, Day 13

• Getting to the back end of all this...
• Valentyna Kaminska of the Ukraine is the second failed doping test other than the Russian figure skaters of these Games.

Medal Count entering Day 13:

• Norway tops the table with 13 golds, Germany has 10, USA 8, the hosts 7.  (With the understanding that the current stated results of the team figure-skating competition are now as provisional as tonight's women's finals.)
• Total:  Norway 28, Illegal Russian Team 24, Germany 20.  (Same caveat.)
• The ROC is throwing a fit.  Duh. 
• If you want to know why Valieva has been allowed to skate, it's only the longest lines and biggest tickets of the entire Games.

More news:

• A spokesperson for Beijing 2022 blasted the world media and claimed Taiwan was already part of mainland China, a flashpoint for years between the Chinese Communist Party and the rest of the world.
• Martin Fourcade and the President of the world cycling federation, the UCI, David Lappartient, have been elected to the International Olympic Committee Athletes' Commission.
• To what should've been no one's surprise at the end of the women's hockey tournament, Canada beat the USA 3-2.  Canada was clearly the best team in the tournament.
• VALIEVA FALLS!  The other two Russians, and by a wide margin, win gold and silver in the women's figure skating.  Anna Shcherbakova wins the gold medal, Alexandra Trusova wins silver, Kaori Sakomoto of Japan wins bronze -- and by the caveats the IOC put into the competition, those results SHOULD, barring more Russian doping coming out, stand now.  Valieva finishes fourth.  Cue the Russian trolls.   
• Valieva blew the triple axel and the quad toe loop, and STILL, with two blown elements, had the fifth highest free skate score.  The other two Russians were 20 points better than the rest of the field.  I think you can figure out why.   
• The reported mood inside the arena is shock and silence -- and it is already being referred to by Inside the Games reporters as a controversial and infamous moment in the history of the Winter Games.  Look out, we may be JUST getting started!  If I'm the Inside the Games staff, I get out of Beijing NOW, closing-IOC Session notwithstanding. 

Medal Count coming out of Day 13:

• Norway adds another, now has 14 to lead the gold medal table.  Germany 10.  USA 8.  Sweden joins China with 7.
• Total:  Norway 29, Illegal Russian Team 26, Germany 22, USA 21, Canada 20.
• 21 nations have won gold medals at these Games.
• The medal table now contains 28 nations.
• Of the 109 events in the Games, only 17 now remain.

Day 707

• In another piece of evidence that, even if I need to recount from time to time, these "Day X" posts aren't ending anytime soon:  Word from Denmark, which TRIED to lift the last of it's restrictions:  Cases and deaths have skyrocketed since.  DUH!!!   
• In what has to be one of the LEAST SURPRISING stories I've ever read:  People have been doing voyeur shit with the world-famous Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders -- to the tune of at least $2,400,000 in sexual harassment settlements with the group.  Nobody can just get enough of them -- when are people going to learn that "cheerleading" is just a nice form of having a harem to sexually abuse in one form or another??   
• The coach of the US Women's National Team made about 1/4 of the US Men's National coach.  That should be other way around.   
• COVID-12 has just lost his engagement -- one has to wonder if it's over his COVID stand.  
• (Nope, never mind.  My anonymous friend has sent me information that Shailene Woodley will eat food with a "semi-rotten" taste and will even eat Clay -- and not Matthews!!  (rimshot -- I'll be here all week!  Tip your waitress.)  So I guess a little COVID anti-vax bullshit won't faze her.)

Super Bowl Showtime Post-Mortem: "Ten" Priorities The Shills At ESPN Want To See...

Oh, so ESPN wants to do an article on ten priorities the NFL needs to explore in the offseason.

How cute.

1) COVID protocols, if any.  We are dangerously close, as a nation and world, to throwing in the towel and letting COVID run.  I fear both political and economic realities may have more than a few people actually accepting a Deagle-like 70% reduction in the US population -- which wouldn't happen all at once, even if the time frame Deagle gives is the end of 2025.  But the fact is, we are losing to COVID, and there may be no real point of fighting it further, be it in sports or anywhere else.  We need to right the ship, forcibly.

2) Rooney Rule DOA.  I think it's clear that this is still a White Man's League, odes to women-beating thug rapper halftime shows and BLM mottos in the end lines notwithstanding.  The fact is, if the Flores lawsuit has shown nothing else, it has exposed what many knew in the first place:  The Rooney Rule is a joke, and it's still a White Man's League.  And, really, only a Black players' strike, much as was threatened by the players in the NBA after the Sterling tapes, is going to have real change.

3) Defend against the Flores and Gruden lawsuits.  Flores is going to be a tough defend, because you not only have the Rooney Rule situation, you have the specter of owner-sponsored sports bribery to have to deal with -- in that Flores was fired, partially if not completely, for his refusal to accept money to throw football games as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins (which now has one thought indicating at least two owners now will have to be replaced -- and with the Broncos also selling, this could become a buyer's market).  The NFL's best hope is basically to say "We are above all law", as usual, and prevent either lawsuit from hitting discovery.  Because discovery, which makes these matters (including all of the Dan Snyder e-mails and situation) public record, will shatter the NFL as you know it.

4) As such, they do need to get to the bottom of the Flores "$100,000 a loss" claim.  On it's own surface, this is Sports Bribery, a violation of United States Federal Law.  But it would also appear, however, to run counter to the "only right a person has is a seat and an outcome" of Mayer.  In fact, it raises a more interesting question...

4a)  (My addition)  It's clear that individual states must, at least with respect to what is under their own umbrella (the betting, collection, etc. itself) ensure that any gambling done within their state is legally "fair".  A lot of people have talked about the Flores lawsuit and Sports Bribery in the context of the increasing legality of sports gambling.  So:  As a function of sports gambling:  Does this mean that a state must be allowed to ensure the games themselves are fair (abrogating Mayer), or, alternatively, does Mayer extend to a place where Sports Bribery becomes legal, and, hence, Mayer and it's precedents rule the roost, meaning that, TRULY, the only thing a person is entitled to is "whatever transpires", rendering that there no legal -- even within sports gambling! -- right to a legal, lawful, or fair contest? 

5) The Aaron Rodgers sabotage continues -- he has the power to set the QB free-agent market.  COVID-12 has already sabotaged at least one season, not unlike his predecessor, Khan Noonian Favre.  He's supposed to let everybody know, for the basis of helping people like Davante Adams make their decisions, in about a week...  Stay tuned.

6) The DeShaun Watson fiasco.  Talk about killing a franchise...  Look at where the Houston Texans are right now.  This is another cost of the NFL and media's "All About The Quarterback" marriage -- if your quarterback turns out (Jim Rome: "Allegedly") to be a sexual predator of the first order, your entire franchise goes flat-line.

7) Then, since "It's All About The Quarterback", sort through the draft for more.  Forget O-Lines and Safeties and all that kind of crap.  Right, ESPN?  Hell, let's take it another step:  Look for the new Q-Rating quarterbacks that the league is going to want to push, especially if Andy Reid doesn't leave Kansas City, Brady's retirement sticks, and COVID-12 opens up his mouth again and again...

8) Just create a TMO/VAR and be done with it.  Here's the dumbest thing about the open-faced rigging of the NFL.  Many other sports have far more transparency, many micing their officials (including the TMO's) to have the fans believe the game is fair.  And if you still want the game to be corrupt beyond all repair, there's soccer's VAR model and all the randomness it seems to throw out there.

9) Address Overtime??  I think the thing is, they want both teams to get the ball, regardless of what happens on the first possession.  Of course, then the stupid thing:  Barring the defense being hopelessly tired, wouldn't you want the ball SECOND?  I think this is where you put the "Spot and Choose" proposal the Ravens brought forward.

In fact, I'll make a hybrid of the current rule and Spot and Choose my proposal:

• Victory conditions remain the same.  The first offensive team can score a touchdown to win immediately, the first defensive team can score any defensive score to win immediately.  Otherwise, both teams must have the ball at least once, at and after which point the first breaking of the tie wins.
• The timing remains the same, 10 minutes.
• The coin toss happens, but the choice becomes different.  It basically becomes three choices, so I'm not sure who would get the direction (goal to defend).  The winner of the coin toss gets to determine whether they want to spot the ball somewhere to start overtime (no kickoff) or choose who gets to go on offense when the spot occurs.  The other team takes the other option.  Make it too appetizing for the offense, the other team goes on offense.  Set it too far back, they stick you with it.

10)  Special Teams.  Especially given the Fantastic Finish (tm) stuff, it's time to at least get rid of kickoffs.  And punts are, statistically, the most dangerous play in the game.  Making the game no-punt would be a real interesting motif.  More likely is a no-kickoff scenario, where the ball, after a score, would normally be placed at the other team's 25, with an option for a "fourth and long" scenario at some punitive point, equivalent to an onside kick, should the offense elect.

Yeah, they said ten somewhere, and it's more...

11) The ESPN pro-taunting program continues.  If anything, the NFL needs to crack down further (make taunting a one-and-done offense, etc.).  The fact is, we may have to go to no celebrations at all and anything short of "hand the football back to the official and go to the huddle or sideline" is 15 and a ross.  But it's clear ESPN is pro-taunting and wants to see more mass brawls and skirmishes...

If you're going to legalize taunting, legalize the good right cross to the mush someone can give in response.  And then the brawl which comes after it.

12) In-person media access, if any.  Could be a real question as to whether some teams might provide it at all...  "I'm only here so I don't get fined"?

13) Dan Snyder must go.  "Wrangle Washington into line" comes to Dan Snyder.  Get rid of him and everyone else involved and see if you still have a Washington Commanders franchise left.  There could be a real opportunity (Miami MIGHT go down that road if their owner is ousted) to see the Commanders moved to another city to get rid of Snyder and that whole culture.  But nothing happens positively to the Commanders until Dan Snyder is ousted.

14) Relationship between cleats and turf.  If anything shows that needs another look -- OBJ jamming his knee and being put out of the Super Bowl should bring this back.

That's their list.

Super Bowl Showtime: The Numbers Are In

36.9 rating, 99.2 million on NBC, 112.3 million over all platforms.

That is the lowest rated Super Bowl in the merger era.  The lowest rated Super Bowl actually goes back to Super Bowl III in 1969.

It is, however, the most people to watch the Super Bowl since 2017.

What this means is fewer people are watching television of any form.  That rating is the number of television sets turned on to the program.  (The share is the number of actual sets which are turned on to SOMETHING which are turned on to the program.  Commensurate with previous years and on the high end of that scale, the share was 72 -- meaning that, of all television sets turned on and watching anything, 72% were watching the Super Bowl.  This means that roughly half of all television sets in the country were turned off for Super Bowl Sunday.)

Down 3% in ratings, up 4% in viewership over LV.

The peak TV audience was 104.4 million.  The NFL's tribute to violence and beating women got 103.3 million.

The Winter Olympic Virus: Day 12

• In what has to be the LEAST surprising news of the entire Games, Kamila Valieva won last night's short program by over two points.  The top six consist of three Russians, two Japanese, and a Korean.  Russia is favored to sweep the women's event on Thursday.
• A Finnish skater won the drug wildcard spot awarded by the IOC into the free skate.
• Jarl Magnus Reiber has to be heartbroken today -- leading the Nordic Combined large hill competition by 45 seconds, he somehow went the wrong way on the cross-country course.  As a result, fellow Norwegian Jorgen Graabak won the gold medal.

Olympic TV ratings Friday and forward, per Sports Media Watch.  (All comparisons are to Pyeonchang coverage):

• Friday:  4.6 rating, 8.57 million viewers.  -51% ratings, -48% viewers.
• Saturday:  4.4 rating, 8.24 million viewers.  -46% ratings, -43% viewers.
• And now to show the power of the Super Bowl.  One of the most prime spots for any television program is the first program after the post-game coverage of the Super Bowl.  This year, because of the unique quirk that the Olympics and Super Bowl were on NBC, the primetime coverage for Sunday was that prime spot.
• As a result, the small primetime coverage window drew a 9.8 rating and 21.28 million viewers, which were increases on Pyeongchang, obviously.
• In what probably is the most shocking number from Sunday:  USA Network actually drew a rating for the portion of it's 24/7 (yes, with the lack of NBC Sports Network, USA Network is showing either live or reran coverage of the Games all day every day until the cauldron goes out next Sunday!) coverage during the Super Bowl, an 0.52 rating and just over 900,000 viewers.

Other news and thoughts:

• To give you the current sorry state of the US Alpine skiing program:  There are 88 scheduled runners in today's men's slalom competition.  The United States has the same number as vaunted Alpine nations like Puerto Rico, Pakistan, San Marino, East Timor, Lebanon, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines and all the other nations which took only ONE such skier.
• It is official.  The IOC will *NOT* recognize Kamila Valieva as an Olympic medalist -- if the Russian finishes in the top three, the results of the entire competition will be declared "provisional", awaiting a full trial on the full merits of the case, probably before WADA, and then the CAS.  I've heard a number of people criticize the IOC -- it's not the IOC, and probably never was, back to the McLaren Report.  It's the CAS you have to worry about.   

Day 706

• Ah, clickbait...  DailyMotion video on the MSN feed, "The City of Los Angeles Nearly Burned To The Ground After The Rams Won The Super Bowl".  Too bad the video showed nothing of the sort, though, as you know if you saw the news, there was more than a shade of rioting downtown!
• In what may be the first real damage to All Elite Wrestling in it's two years plus of existence, EVP Cody Rhodes and his wife Brandi have had their contracts expire and have left the company.
• And word is, WWE may be the destination.  Cody, two words:  Owen Hart.  You are literally taking your life into your hands with the amount of damage you've done to WWE the last two-plus years.  Don't do it.
• A number of months after wild scenes forced the abandonment of a World Cup qualifier between Brazil and Argentina, FIFA has banned the four Argentinian players involved in the COVID breach for two matches and fined everybody involved.  The match will be replayed.  Ridiculous.  If there was ANY merit to the abandonment of the match, the penalty should've started -- especially with the fact this was a COVID situation -- at the disqualification from Qatar 2022 of the team responsible, which it appears FIFA is determining WAS Argentina.   
• Chief Marketing Officer at CNN is out.  Allison Gollust fired after the Cuomo investigation.  She was the woman in the relationship with Andrew Zucker which resulted in his removal from the network.  That network has three years to live, tops, unless something changes.   

Super Bowl Showtime: You Still Don't Want To Believe The Super Bowl Was Rigged?

I expect this to be allowed to stay up maybe 15-30 minutes after I post the link -- again, NFL highlight, so I can't just embed it here.

Here's the last Cincinnati play, in all-22 format.

Tell me that Burrow didn't see an open receiver for the first down easily before Donald got to him.

The Winter Olympic Virus: Day 11

• I just want these Games to be cancelled now.  It's clear this whole thing is going to eventually blow up.  If not somehow on the ice or whatever, the Russian trolls are going to get it done.
• I've had to deal with quite a number of those the last several days (and wondering what non-zero number of them have taken to the States in support of Drumpf).
• Valieva is now saying her grandfather's medication (probably for a heart condition) tripped the positive.  Failing to answer at least two questions:  Why, as a world-level athlete who HAS TO KNOW you are being tested for drugs at almost all times, are you taking anything that isn't either legal or a therapeutic exception?  Secondly, why are you taking THAT medication at all???    
• Yeah, I think it's fucking bullshit, and I think it's coming from upstairs, if you know what I'm saying.  A lot of the people defending Valieva as underage don't get the problem that this makes that problem WORSE.     
• To give you how ridiculous it is that this ruling holds from the CAS, the IOC has made an additional provision -- if Valieva finishes in the top 24 of the short program (Hint:  She Will), a 25th skater will be advanced into the free skate as well.

Medal Table:

• Norway pretty much clinched the #1 spot for the Games with three golds today so far, making 12.  Germany has 8, USA 7, Austria, the Netherlands, and the hosts from China 6 each.  The 2-man bobsled is left, so Germany will have 9 by the end of the night.

And I don't know how to count whatsoever... We're at Day 705!!

• ROTFLMAO.
• I can chalk this up to COVID Fatigue.  Seriously.
• But I've miscounted, by about 40 days, where we are in this mess.
• I was making a reference to how funny it was that the day some of us know as "Singles' Awareness Day" would pop up as Day 666 of the COVID situation.
• And then I stopped cold, and realized we are less than a month from two years into this COVID shit, and the math is completely wrong.  The count went wrong, somehow, at the first of the year.
• Oh well, it's rectified now.  Day 705, we carry on...

Now to the news of the day:

• Grain of salt (OK, a truckload) because it's Joe Buck:  But he says he believes the MLB lockout will resolve in the next two weeks.
• One of the reasons I think Buck is full of shit:  The latest proposal actually appears to want to allow MLB to cut the number of minor league players by a factor of one-sixth.  Won't be in 2022 or probably 2023, but the latest owner offer puts it on the Commissioner (who hates the minor leagues and having to pay them) to reduce the list as he sees fit.
• Tyreke Evans is the first player in 14 years to successfully complete the NBA/NBPA's two-year drug suspension and be reinstated.  He can negotiate with teams now, play Friday.
• Look for prices to go through the roof on something else soon:  Avocado imports from Mexico have been suspended.

The Winter Olympic Virus: CAS Decision Snuffs The Cauldron

Anyone who's delved into this situation regarding Russia, the IOC, WADA, and the CAS knew this decision was coming today.

Anyone who's understood that Vladimir Putin is the most powerful man in the world over the course of the last 8+ years knew this decision was coming today.

The Council for the Arbitration of Sport completed what it started when it nullified most of the athlete penalties for Sochi:  Doping's legal in Olympic sport.  You just have to "do it right".

I'll get to the two major American ramifications of that, before anybody thinks I'm letting the US doping situation or the United States Sexual Assault Committee off the hook.

WADA has already condemned the Russians for the utterly deliberate act of not marking the relevant samples as urgent enough to get proper testing done from their national championships on Christmas before the Games.

Valieva is underage, and has apparently been getting cycled off the drug program so she tests out for the first part of the mission of rewriting figure skating in the Russian image.

All of these are deliberate acts, and they come from the propaganda arm of the Russian government and Vladimir Putin.

Anyone who wants to tell you otherwise is not only ignorant of the truth, ignorant of the history of this entire affair over the last eight years with the CAS, and ignorant of the same situation rising in Russian agents in the United States such as IQ45 Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and the entire Alternate Facts crowd.

A lot of people have asked each other how the Russian athletes are allowed to compete under any flag, that the entire exercise is a farce and a slap in the face to the Games...

There's an answer to that, and a lot of it goes to how many medals have actually been annulled from the Sochi Games of the Russian drug regime.

The IOC, after the McLaren report, disqualified over 40 Russian athletes from the Olympic movement.  The appeal to the CAS not only restored the eligibility of over two-thirds of that number, and all of them after the Sochi Games...

... but reduced the total medal nullification total from 13 of the 29 Russian medals in the event down to just THREE.

What the CAS has now ruled, a second time, is that you can absolutely dope in world sport -- you just need to do the right tap-dances and the right screwing around to ensure that no fair result can ever be achieved in the world court of the CAS.

This means there's no feasible way, unless you go to the sloppy American method of an inherent wink-and-nod athlete-by-athlete basis, to police doping.  Vlad Putin is a lot of things:  STUPID IS NOT ONE OF THEM.  As the old song goes, he knows all the rules and he knows how to break them...

(And once the QSA takes hold int he next 1-3 years, I fully expect to see a similar program instituted here by the Russian agents who will run the show for the next foreseeable amount of time.)

The other problem:  This now renders impossible any large-scale outside investigation disqualifying the United States from the Olympic movement for the pervasive sexual assault and harassment of athletes as at least an inherent condition of selection to the team.

The United States Sexual Assault Committee is now just as legal as the Russian doping.

Good luck, world.  At minimum, they need to shitcan the remainder of the figure skating -- and I would not blame Athlete One for leaving Beijing now.