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Worst Games ever? Rio's woes should fade once Games begin

RIO DE JANEIRO — It should be the worst of times here in Rio de Janeiro, an Olympic host city so steeped in dysfunction, turmoil and crime that this Games could go down in history as the most disastrous in the event’s 120-year legacy.

Jesus Christ the Redeemer, near Maracana Stadium, during sunrise in Rio de Janeiro. The city is struggling under a difficult economic and political climate and the ongoing Zika threat. Photo: Reuters

Jesus Christ the Redeemer, near Maracana Stadium, during sunrise in Rio de Janeiro. The city is struggling under a difficult economic and political climate and the ongoing Zika threat. Photo: Reuters

RIO DE JANEIRO — It should be the worst of times here in Rio de Janeiro, an Olympic host city so steeped in dysfunction, turmoil and crime that this Games could go down in history as the most disastrous in the event’s 120-year legacy.

This was certainly not what the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Brazil’s bid team had imagined seven years ago, as this postcard-perfect city of mountains, beaches and bikini-clad women celebrated its historic win over Chicago, Madrid, and Tokyo to become the first South American city to host the world’s biggest and glitziest sports extravaganza.

As always, reality sets in after the fairytale victory, and the country, city, and its residents — known as Cariocas — have weathered storm after storm since then.

WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS

Top of the litany of problems that have plagued the host city is the economic recession that officially began in 2015 as prices of commodities crashed, with the corruption scandal at state-run oil company, Petrobas, tainting politicians and business owners.

It triggered Brazil’s longest recession since the 1930s, and government figures released this week revealed that the country’s economy, the ninth largest in the world, shrank 5.4 per cent in the first quarter of the year.

Inflation has gone up, as has unemployment, which increased by 11.2 per cent from April 2015 to February this year, with 11.4 million Brazilians among its estimated 205 million population currently unemployed — a jump of almost 20 per cent from a year ago.

The political crisis continues to deepen, with suspended president Dilma Rousseff inching closer to an impeachment trial after a Senate report on Tuesday (Aug 2) found that she had violated the constitution by manipulating government accounts to cover up the reality of Brazil’s struggling economy during her re-election campaign in 2014.

Nation-wide anti-government protests have been held just days before the start of the Games on Aug 5, with the protests expected to continue during the Olympics.

An Olympic bid pledged to clean up Rio’s polluted waterways by 80 per cent to improve the lives of its people has since gone to waste, with the state’s top environment official admitting recently that it would not be possible to do it before the Games.

The free-flowing sewage and debris — including discarded furniture, rubbish and even dead bodies — around Guanabara Bay, the waters off Copacabana beach, and Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas which will hosts events such as sailing, rowing, marathon swimming and rowing had already left a number of athletes ill with diarrhoea and infections during test events ahead of the Olympics.

Fears over the Zika virus have also deterred visitors and athletes from travelling to Brazil for the Games, with top golfers like Rory McIlroy, Jordan Speith and Jason Day choosing to skip the sport’s debut at the Olympics.

Crime has risen in the city, with muggings rising 14 per cent from January to May city-wide, while areas like the downtown business district and tourist hotspot Copacabana beach have seen an increase of 26 and 44 per cent respectively in street crime.

Ahead of the Games, a group of Spanish sailors were assaulted at gunpoint while training in Rio in May, while two of Australia’s Paralympic athletes were also mugged a month later.

Doubts have also been raised over the readiness of these Games, with workers rushing to put the final touches on a number of the sports venues just days before the opening ceremony.

This last-minute rush even has a name, jeitinho brasileiro, which translates to “the Brazilian way of doing things” — leaving preparations for major events till late.

Just this week, a ramp built for athletes’ boats at the Marina da Gloria sailing venue collapsed, and the Olympic Village housing some 10,500 athletes from 206 countries has been plagued by complaints of theft, clogged toilets and broken shower curtain rails.

Ticket sales remain sluggish, with 20 per cent of the 7.5 million available tickets still unsold with the event set to kick off on Thursday.

Adding to Rio’s toxic stew of problems is the doping scandal that hit Russian sports months before the Olympics, with the fallout from the International Olympic Committee’s decision not to ban its athletes leaving a bad taste in the mouth for many athletes, coach, officials and fans.

ARE CARIOCAS READY TO SAMBA?

An evening stroll in downtown Rio — popularly known as Centro, an hour’s drive from Barra — yields no signs of a city that is about to host the biggest sports event in its history.

Unlike the Games’ main clusters of Barra, Deodoro, Copacabana and Maracana, there are no Rio 2016 banners bearing official mascots Vinicius and Tom, no bus stop ads, nor super-sized, selfie-friendly structures of the Olympic Games’ famous five rings.

Instead, the streets are busy with nine-to-five salary workers making their way home, street vendors peddling snacks and sandwiches just metres from the area’s most famous landmark, the Metropolitan Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro.

Perhaps the doom and gloom of Brazil’s economic recession and political woes has killed the celebratory buzz for Cariocas, with news of Rousseff’s pending impeachment, crime and corruption dominating newspaper headlines daily.

Just don’t tell that to Jose Jogato, one of many popcorn streets vendors parked just outside the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) building in downtown Rio.

The 65-year-old is happy that the Olympic Games are in town, and its projected 500,000 visitors, has seen his sales doubling in recent days. “It will be a big thing, the Olympics, and a good thing for Brazil,” said Jogata in Portuguese.

“The economy is worse, but I hope the Olympic Games will help everyone. I’m happy because sales of my popcorn has been better... I used to get about 50 customers a day, and now I have 100 each day because of the Olympics!”

Administrative assistant Deborah De Abreu is another Rio resident who is determined not to let the gloom spoil her Olympic party.

The 30-year-old, who is planning to buy tickets to the gymnastics competition at the Rio Olympic Arena to catch the action with her family, told TODAY: “This is a unique opportunity for Rio to show the world our beauty, and I’m liking this Olympic Games very much.

“Yes, there are some people against the Olympics being held here, but I don’t think it will spoil the party as all the world is coming to Rio, our city.”

Like the FIFA World Cup held in Brazil two years ago, some citizens have taken to the streets to protest the hosting of the event, with some bristling at the expenditure of this 2016 Rio Olympic Games, which is set to cost an estimated US$12 billion (S$16 billion) for a city peppered with some 1,000 favelas — makeshift shantytowns made famous in the 2002 film City Of God — notorious for their crime and unsanitary living conditions.

It is a sentiment that electrical engineer Saraiva Castilho once shared, but the 53-year-old has since changed his mind about the Aug 5 to 21 Games.

“Brazil has so many poor people, and we’re not in a good situation,” he said. “I didn’t support it at first, but now that it’s here and all the world is looking at Brazil, I want them to have a great impression of Brazil, and I want it to be the best one.

“The majority of people like the Olympic Games, but the government is not showing the reality of Brazil and it is putting on this make-up for the world to see.

“Brazil is a beautiful country but the reality of the people’s situation has to be seen, and the government must do something to help them.”

FORGET YOUR WOES, THE GAMES ARE HERE

The London 2012 Games were heralded as a phenomenal success for Britain, as the hosts were lauded for their brilliant Danny Boyle-directed opening show that showcased the nation’s pomp, eccentricity and culture. Few, however, remember how the run-up to that celebrated Games was dogged by a familiar list of pre-Olympic worries: Security concerns, an over-worked transport system, traffic chaos, and organisational hiccups.

Athens were similarly dogged by problems ahead of the 2004 Games, with Olympic venues behind schedule in the run-up to the event. Its main Olympic Stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies was completed only two months before the Games, while a roof for the Aquatics Centre was scrapped due to the tight timeline.

And once the curtains come up on Rio 2016 on Aug 5, Brazil and its residents — and the world — will put aside their woes to watch enraptured, as American swim legend Michael Phelps makes his final splash in the pool for his son Boomer, and as Jamaican sprint hero Usain Bolt jiggles at the start lines of the 100m final, the 200m and 4x100m relay.

Surely Brazilians will flock to the stadiums, and stay glued to their television screens, as they pray for football wonder Neymar and their men’s football team to clinch the coveted and elusive Olympics gold.

Even as we celebrate the Olympics’ sporting gods, who can forget the stories of everyday men/athletes like Eric “the Eel” Moussambani, a wildcard entry from Equatorial Guinea whose slow but dogged swims at the 2000 Sydney Games earned him cult status among Aussie fans. Or Canadian Finn sailor Lawrence Lemieux, who abandoned a second-place spot at the 1996 Olympics in Seoul to rescue Singapore sailors Joseph Chan and Siew Shaw Her who had fallen into the water after strong winds capsized their boat.

Even as the Rio Games has been tainted by the IOC’s perceived weakness in dealing with doping, even as dissent against hosts Brazil continue to dog the Olympic Games and its ideals, a group of 10 athletes have already injected joy, awe, and hope with their participation at these Games.

Ten refugee athletes are here in Brazil to compete under the Olympic flag, and among them is Syrian swimmer Yusra Mardini, who put her skills to life-saving use when the engine of the boat smuggling her and her sister stopped off the coast of Lesbos, Greece, forcing the duo to swim and pull the boat and its refugee occupants to shore.

The plucky young swimmer confesses that she hates the open water now, but she will swim in the women’s 200m freestyle heats on Aug 8 at the Olympic Aquatic Centre.

For the millions of fans worldwide tuning in to the television across different time zones to catch their hometown heroes, the magic of an Olympic Games once every four years cannot be beaten.

Back home in Singapore, news of Mediacorp’s eleventh-hour deal to secure the “live” broadcasting rights to the Games was met with joy and relief, with fans now able to follow national swimmer Joseph Schooling’s exploits in real time as the 21-year-old makes a historic bid for a first-ever swimming medal for the country.

The joys of an Olympic Games may be fleeting, but for some like Brazilian table tennis player Gustavo Tsuboi, it will be a Games to savour for a lifetime.

The world No 68 paddler — who is a third-generation Brazilian-Japanese — told TODAY: “Table tennis is not a popular sport here as compared to football, basketball and volleyball.

“I hope that this will make my sport more popular, and get more kids to play table tennis, and that way we can grow. I’m really excited for the Games to start.”

This may be the toughest of times for Brazil, but one can definitely count on the joie de vivre of Cariocas to turn this pity party into a carnival to remember for years to come. It’s samba time, Rio de Janiero!

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