This has been a memorable Summer Olympics.    None more so than the effort of Noah Lyles . He tested positive for COVID-19 three days ago.  Suffering from asthma anyway, he should have gone to the hospital.  He said he had symptoms and did not feel well, coughing a lot.   But he wore a mask indoors and, with only his inner circle knowing, chose to compete in the 200m dash.  He made it through to the finals, but finished "only" third.  He collapsed and was in agony lying on the track after the race ended, placed in a wheelchair to leave. His summer olympics competition is over, and he is overjoyed. He might have already contracted COVID-19 when he won the 100m race by 0.005 seconds. Remarkable. Heard of Quincy Wilson? Say you are 16 years old, and a junior in high school. Youngest USA track Olympics member ever. He already did poorly for the USA just qualifying for the 4x400 meter finals tomorrow.  He might be replaced, but probably not.  Watch the event. There are younger c

I was all set today to write a solid science posting, toying with the coming of  giant Joro spiders , but was thumbing through my unread magazines piling up from my global journey, and one article caught my fancy.  First, did you know that the Paris Summer Olympics will begin on July 27? In  776 BC, the first Greek Olympics,  and for the next dozen to follow, there was only one event.  The stadion was a foot race of 600 feet. A century ago, in the Paris Summer Olympics of 1924, they had tug of war, croquet and something called  jeu de paume , although this latter sport was just for exhibition.  The last time this "tennis" type game was official was in the 1908 London Olympics.  The modern Olympics returned in 1896 with 43 events in nine sports. This year, there will be 32 different sports for 329 medal events.  In 2020 Tokyo, 33 sports and 339 events. However, no more baseball ( Major League teams complained ), softball is gone, and so is karate.  But not to fret, as the 2028