Rio Organizing Committee continues to endure scorn

If you would like to assume that everything is going absolutely fine in the world of the Olympics, just stop reading this right now. Ditto for anyone who appreciates anything containing a passing resemblance to, proper sentence, structure.

For the rest of youhere's another round of incredibly unsurprising stories surrounding the five-ring circus we all know and love(?).

Endangered species

Even with all of the unprecedented problems Rio has been having in the lead-up to the Olympics creating a bacteria-filled storm cloud over the event, you could always point to one positive, undisputed fact: no endangered animals had been harmed during the making of these Olympics.

Until last week, that is.

The 17-year-old female jaguar, named Juma, was part of a photo-op with the Olympic torch as it made its way through the Amazon. It got loose from its restraints (the jaguar, not the torch), and soldiers had to shoot it as it advanced on one of the handlers.

Unsurprisingly, this death caused a bit of a stir, and people lined up to take even more shots at the Rio Organizing Committee.

The only thing that could make this PR disaster worse would be if a jaguar happened to be the mascot of the Brazilian Olympic team or something.

Well

So, to summarize, Brazil just killed its team mascot in defence of the major symbol of the Olympics. That sound you hear is English teachers everywhere writing on chalkboards and having a field day with the symbolism.

Anyway, just make sure someone tells Komak to watch out.

(Yes. We have one too)

Cheaters never prosper (maybe)

Make sure you're sitting down or hanging on to something. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) may havedone somethingright?

Well, in essence, it did absolutely nothing at all, but it's a step up from making things worse.

By backing the Russian track and field ban to be upheld by the IAAF, the IOC is sending a strong message that state-sanctioned cheating via doping will not be tolerated.

Or maybe tolerated a little bit.

More of a step sideways, then.

Preserving the future

A very real worry for anyone heading to Rio for the Games is the Zika virus, which is in full swing in Brazil. In adults, the virus is not extremely serious, as it basically acts as a bad flu for a few days. It gets much more alarming for pregnant women and couples trying to conceive, as it's proven to cause debilitating developmental issues in newborns.

Some athletes are concerned about this, and have taken the precautionary step of freezing their sperm before they make the trip to Rio. British long jumper Greg Rutherford is doing it, and so will John Speraw, coach of the American men's indoor volleyball team. NBA star Pau Gasol, who will represent Spain at the Games, is also considering it.

The major conclusion: when a story about athletes freezing their sperm sounds like the most logical thing that's been done in the past six months, that's when you know things have gone off the rails.