The Canadian story of the 2016 Rio Olympics so far is the utter domination of Canadian men by women in the medal standings. As of Monday, Canada had 13 medals. All but one won by a women. Let me repeat that: All. But. One. Won. By. A. Women. The transcendent Penny Oleksiak was herself responsible for four of them. The country has been flooded with stories about, in the words of Justin Bieber… er, prime minister Justin Trudeau, Girl Power.

But, there’s no moment that some people won’t try to turn to they own purposes. So guess what? According to some, we don’t respect our women athletes. The evidence? A Toronto Sun headline about Oleksiak that blared “Pretty Penny” when she claimed a gold medal. That was sexist.

To paraphrase an old line, “I tuned into the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, and a climate conference broke out.”

The stars of the 2016 Olympic opening ceremonies are purported to be the athletes themselves. Their hopes, their dreams and their accomplishments in pursuit of gold. And there was some of that on the floor of the Maracana Stadium in Rio as the heroes of the Games marched in to start the Summer Games. An athlete’s smile can light up the world.

It is the best of times for golf. It is the worst of times for golf. 

As the best players in the world sloshed through torrential rains this weekend at the PGA Championship, the case could be made that “the good walk spoiled” is the most compelling of the major sports at this moment. Coming off a once-in-a-lifetime final-round duel between Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson at the Open Championship at Troon, golf has a stable of charismatic, telegenic players in contention each week.  

 Philip Henslowe: Strangely enough, it all turns out well.

Hugh Fennyman: How?

Philip Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery. 

— Shakespeare In Love

The lines from the 1989 Oscar winner pretty much sum up the typical approach to an Olympic Games. In the years before the event, disaster is widely predicted. Pollution, terrorism, rampant drug use, political upheaval, climate eruptions— all have been predicted for the Games over the decades. 

Then, somehow, it all turns out well. How? It’s a mystery. 

But with the Rio Summer Games just days away, there is a strange unease, a sense that the mystery element may not save this first foray by the International Olympic Committee into South America. 

As John McEnroe pointed out on Sunday, there are a couple of ways to look at Milos Raonic’s first Grand Slam final in the moments after Andy Murray had swept him 6-4, 7-6, 7-6 at the All England Club. The irascible lefty with the trenchant tongue observed the ways to look at Raonic’s deflating finish to a spectacular Wimbledon.

The way they spent money the past week in the NBA and NHL you’d have thought Kathleen Wynne found another way to made power more expensive for Ontarians. After a time of relative salary sobriety, NHL and NBA general managers embarked on a spending spree that sank the case for economic restraint. 

News reports say that George Stromboulopoulos is out as host of Hockey Night In Canada after two seasons on Canada’s most prestigious TV property. And-- O, the irony-- his predecessor Ron MacLean is back in the chair he occupied for decades before Rogers Communication won the TV/ social media rights to NHL hockey in Canada and shunted MacLean off to the hinterland.

Next thing you'll tell me Stephen Harper will come back as prime minister.

Tales from another land, long ago: In the 1960s, my father bought our family a table-top hockey game representing the six teams then in the NHL. My father was a social Darwinist, so he told me and my four brothers that we couldn’t all have the same team. We had to choose different teams. My two older brothers selected the two Canadian teams, the Canadiens and the Maple Leafs. 

Like fireworks expanding endlessly as they leapt skyward Muhammad Ali just kept taking away your breath. When you thought he’d crested and was headed back to earth, a new spray of colour and noise emerged. We never wanted it to end. As it did on Friday. Inevitably, as it does to all men.

 A Canadian public health expert has demanded the International Olympic Committee delay or move the 2016 Rio Olympics because of the Zika virus threat. “But for the games, would anyone recommend sending an extra half million visitors into Brazil right now?” wrote University of Ottawa professor Amir Attaran in the Harvard Public Health Review. 

You’ve probably seen the TV commercials for the upcoming World Cup of Hockey airing non-stop during the Stanley Cup playoffs. A rather forlorn Jim Hughson appears to be asking the musical question, “What nation owns hockey?” We are then treated to some cheesy vignettes in which big stars brag on their own countries’ claim on world supremacy.

In baseball, revenge is a dish best served high and tight. That’s what Toronto Blue Jays slugger José Bautista discovered Sunday in Texas. After his elaborate home-run bat flip in the 2015 ALDS against the Rangers (http://goo.gl/NU8Zyy), you knew that Texas would exact its revenge. (Bautista had to know it was coming, too.) The brooding Texans went old school when Bautista took a pitch in the ribs from Rangers reliever Matt Bush.

In the “golden age” of sports, a coach used to be fired for just one reason. His team lost.

In today’s enlightened era, a coach can be dismissed for any number of reasons. 1) His team lost. 2) His best player’s agent thinks the coach is an issue in upcoming negotiations. 3) Social media insists that analytics show his strategy sucks. 4) The owner realizes it’s cheaper to pay two coaches than lose a franchise player. 5) The team owner’s wife hates the coach’s wife. 6) He won the coach of the Year award the year previous. 7) Media following the team turns against him.