MAGNIFICENT BACKDROP

ONCE AGAIN TEAM GB has done well in the water at the Olympic Games, winning several of the sailing events. In an interview on the BBC with one of the ladies who won gold, she said how wonderful she felt and particularly referred to the magnificent backdrop for the event.

I PRESUME SHE WAS referring to the mountains around Guanabara Bay, Sugar Loaf Mountain and the Christ the Redeemer statue glaring down at a city that needs quite a lot of redemption. 

HOWEVER, THE REAL BACKDROP to this year's games is something more sinister: a human leg was found floating in the sailing arena and a severed woman's bottom washed up on the beach and was discovered by children paddling. A Rio police spokesman said this was a "regular occurrence" in the area. "He was probably cut up by one of the drugs gangs," he added.

US SWIMMERS GUNNAR BENTZ and Jack Conger were dragged off a plane and arrested after police believed that they invented a story about being robbed at gunpoint by criminals posing as policemen. A British athlete was in fact robbed at gunpoint, and yesterday all athletes were prohibited from leaving the athletics arena.

THE HEAD OF THE KENYAN team, Major Michael Rotich, has been sent home after being filmed asking for a £10,000 bribe for warning his athletes about when drugs testing was about to take place. 

BOXING JUDGES HAVE BEEN sent home after it was discovered they were making "wrong" decisions in boxing matches, particularly in favour of Russian boxers.

AND THE IRISH HEAD of the European Olympic Committee, Pat Hickey, was arrested after being found hiding naked in his son's hotel room in Rio. According to Detective Ronaldo Oliveira he had been illegally selling thousands of tickets over face value with the possibility of making a profit of up to three million US dollars.

(My photo shows a shoreline of Guanabara Bay that the cameras religiously avoid)