Olympic weirdness continues with WADA's meldonium mea culpa

This week's visit down the weird road to the Olympics seems to resemble more of a roundabout.

What once was banned is now…we have no idea

Remember meldonium? You may have heard about the string of postitive tests. It's that thing that athletes keep getting banned over, after the World Anti-Doping Agency added it to their banned substances list this year.

Well…about those bans…

The problem is that, apparently, WADA didn't take the time needed to determine if, in fact, these athletes should be banned for taking this particular substance.

"There is currently a lack of clear scientific information on excretion times [for meldonium]," WADA said in a bizarre mea culpa on Monday.

"In these circumstances, WADA considers that there may be grounds for no fault or negligence on the part of the athlete."

Good thing there weren't any high-profile athletes caught up in this mess. You know, like athletes with millions of dollars to spend on hefty lawsuits.

Oh, wait.

Blast from the past (but not really)

Remember Muhammad Ali? He has qualified for the Rio Olympics.

Not that one.

This one.

But Bruce Springsteen's daughter did not.

(Yes, that one.)

Making a comeback (in all the wrong ways)

Remember Grant Hackett? He won three gold medals in the pool for Australia in two Olympics (2000, 2004), to go along with two silvers. He's also attempting a comeback.

Results are mixed.

For context: this is Grant Hackett passed out on a wheelchair while being detained at an airport after a not-so-smooth flight back home from the Australian Olympic trials.

Hackett allegedly groped a male passenger in front of him, when the passenger reclined his seat, according to AFP.

"[Hackett] put his hand through and groped my chest and tweaked my nipple quite forcefully," the passenger told Melbourne's Herald-Sun.

Gary Pert, the chief executive of the Collingwood Football Club, came to Hackett's defence, by pointing out that Hackett was in no way aggressive. In fact, he was possibly too drunk to be awake.

"I think he would be the first one to say he was affected by alcohol and literally was asleep or passed out on the flight for the majority of the time," Pert said to Melbourne radio station 3AW.

Hackett has since apologized. As a postscript, shortly after that, he was admitted to a hospital for a severe mouth infection. We are not showing a picture of that for obvious reasons.

Moto-doping for fun, but mostly profit

Remember doping in cycling? Now there might be clear evidence of a cheating machine.

We repeat, everything is (not) fine

Remember when the International Olympic Committee told everyone that everything was fine in the lead-up to the Games?

Yeah, they were doing that again.

"Despite the hardships and hard economic conditions, they are on target," said inspection team member Patrick Hickey of Ireland.

Just don't pay attention to the, you know, impending impeachment of the nation's president.

Or the fact that many federations are worried about the venues.

Or that these venues are also being dragged into the corruption probe.

Or that the infrastructure is already falling apart.

At least you can win one free overnight stay at the Olympic Arena, home of the gymnastics venue, next week.

No word yet if the room in question will actually contain all four walls.