Five rings of cluster, the updated update

 Aaaand now one of America's Favorites  has shown red for the Bastard Plague. 

Women's gymnastics has long been one of the ratings monsters of the Olympic Games, dating back to the days of Olga Korbut and Nadia Comenici and Mary Lou Retton. The Blob freely admits it's on an island in being largely immune to the sport's charms; I always dwell too much on which eating disorder a particular gymnast suffers from, and what vile abuses she's been subjected to from sadistic jerks like Bela Karolyi.

In any case, lots of eyeballs attach themselves to women's gymnastics come Olympics time. Which makes the fact an alternate on the American team has tested positive for COVID-19 especially impactful.

It means the superstars, the Simone Biles's and the like, may have been exposed, too, though so far there's been no evidence of that. Biles has also been vaccinated -- though, again, that's no guarantee she couldn't contract the virus.

The unnamed gymnast, meanwhile, is the first American Olympian to show red. American tennis standout Coco Gauff pulled out of the Games before even joining the team after testing positive.

And so it goes, and so it goes.

Why are we doing this again?