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!