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Let's Catch Up: IOC Targets Rogue WiFi; A Rower In A Row; And A Rifle Record

Gold medalist Sergei Martynov of Belarus competes in the 50m rifle prone final, in which he set a new world record, at the Royal Artillery Barracks in London.
Marwan Naamani
/
AFP/Getty Images
Gold medalist Sergei Martynov of Belarus competes in the 50m rifle prone final, in which he set a new world record, at the Royal Artillery Barracks in London.

It's Day 7 of competition at the London Olympics, and America has found a new contestant in its continual quest for a sweetheart: Gabby Douglas, the only gymnast who already has two gold medals before individual rounds begin. And still, it seems, some folks prefer to talk about Douglas' hair.

Here's other news that's been popping around the Summer Olympics:

- Folks are angry with the London Organizing Committee for hunting down rogue WiFi hotspots, which are forbidden at Olympic venues. The CBC reports on the "No knives, no hubs" rule.

- Wondering how the Olympic athletes are living? The home design website Houzz offers "a peek inside the Olympic Village apartments," which will be transformed into regular apartments after the games.

- "It was a fix," says an Iranian heavyweight boxer who was disqualified for holding despite leading by 2 points in the second round. Ali Mazaheri "left the ring without shaking hands with his opponent, Cuba's Jose Larduet Gomez," the BBC reports.

- In an Olympics that also saw him become the second shooter in history to score the maximum 600 points, Sergei Martynov of Belarus set a world record in the 50-meter rifle prone event Friday, taking the gold medal.

- German rower Nadja Drygalla has left London, after reports that her boyfriend supports an extreme right-wing party back home in Germany, according to CBS. Drygalla's Olympic experience was already over, however; her women's eight team didn't advance to the medal round.

- "Australian Olympic rower Josh Booth has been ordered to apologize to a shop owner and pay $2,175 to repair damage he caused," reports the AP, "during an outburst in which alcohol was involved. He was detained by police but not charged."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Bill Chappell is a writer and editor on the News Desk in the heart of NPR's newsroom in Washington, D.C.
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