Going for gold: Olympic omnishambles
- Paul Fry
- Jul 22, 2016
- 4 min read
BETTER LATE: Building work will go to the wire.
The Olympic Games always has newspaper editors rubbing their hands. And not for sporting reasons.
Many editors of my experience have had such little interest in sport they have needed to rope themselves to their office door in order to find their way back from visiting their sports staff – or the “games department” as they demeaningly term it.
Yet while they are happy enough to have tales of Olympian derring-do and pictures of flag-waving Brit gold medalists on their back pages – they are more interested in a good scandal for the “business end” of the paper.
And goodness knows, Rio 2016 hasn't even begun and this Games gets gold for a succession of scandals of world-record calibre.
From rampant corruption to terror fears, from pollution and half-built venues and transport links to the biggest yet - the Zika virus threat that has seen the world's top male golfers pull out. We've had the lot.
The "Greatest Show on Earth" could yet be the biggest farce yet.
Admittedly the build-up to an Olympics is rarely plain sailing. The stadium in Athens was completed only two weeks before the 2004 event, while there were real fears over transport links ahead of London in 2012, which ended up costing the taxpayer almost four times the initial budget.
Rio, however, is in a different league. It has been blighted from the start.
The issue that has generated the most headlines is the spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which can cause birth defects and has been linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome in babies.
NO-GO GOLFERS: Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day
Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Jason Day have chosen not to go to Brazil, while British long-jumper Greg Rutherford, who won gold in London, has had his sperm frozen in case he is infected. Some 150 doctors called for the Games to be postponed or moved but organisers say the risk to athletes and spectators is very low.
Trying to clean up the city has proved almost impossible. Most graphically, late last month, human body parts washed up close to where beach volleyball teams will be competing.
Most of the problems revolve around sewage, with open-water swimmers, rowers and triathletes most at risk. Scientists have found dangerous drug-resistant 'super bacteria' off beaches in Rio that will host swimming events and in a lagoon where rowing and canoe athletes will compete.
The US Olympic rowing team will be wearing antimicrobial uni-suits to compete, while the German sailing team has been practicing trying to sail in rubbish-strewn waters.
Then there is the crime: The mayor's bodyguard was shot dead in an apparent mugging when off-duty in late June and a doctor was murdered in her car on a main motorway the same weekend. The same month, embers of the Australian Paralympic team were mugged at gunpoint.
There were 2,036 killings in Rio in the first four months of this year. An estimated 85,000 police officers and soldiers will be patrolling the streets during the Olympics and Paralympics, but Rio de Janeiro acting governor, Francisco Dornelles, says the state is still waiting for 2.9bn Brazilian reals (£660m) from the federal government that is earmarked for security efforts.
NOT HAPPY:
Now factor in Brazil's economic problems. Arrivals at Rio airport have been greeted by striking emergency workers holding a banner reading: "Welcome to hell. Police and firefighters don't get paid, whoever comes to Rio de Janeiro will not be safe."
HELLISH WELCOME: Protesters at Rio de Janeiro airport
A recession that saw Brazil’s economy shrink by four percentage points last year has taken a tough toll on Rio. During boom years, the state awarded billions in tax exemptions to companies from industrial giants to small-scale jewellery dealers, nightclubs, restaurants and hotels.
Tax revenues sunk further with the fall of oil prices that fund much of the state's budget.
Like Athens, Rio faces a race to get the venues ready for the start of the Games on August 5. Despite having had seven years to prepare, key roads, transport and structural work are still to be completed... and the city is said to be littered with Olympic eyesores.
Eleven workers died during building of Olympic facilities or Games-related projects between January 2013 and March 2016.
Many of the problems Rio faces are related to corruption, which is endemic in Brazil.
In May, investigators widened an Olympic graft probe to include all the venues and services financed with federal funds. Many allegations involve funds earmarked to tackle problems such as pollution and crime but have ended up in the pockets of officials and businessmen.
On top of that, suspended President Dilma Rousseff (right) faces an impeachment trial, which has been postponed until after the Olympics, which are the first to be held in South America.
The Senate, which had considered voting on Rousseff's impeachment on August 22, rejected the date for fear of the political instability ruining the Games and sparking street protests.
Rousseff, who took over on a tide of mass populism, is accused of using creative accounting, known as pedalling or 'pedaladas', allowed her to claim victory in the 2014 general election.
Rousseff and her Workers' Party, claimed she was not the first president responsible for pedaladas, however this is believed to have been on a far larger scale under her than her predecessors.
The country's first female president, elected in 2011, likened the accusations as a “coup” and she denies all wrongdoing.
If after reading all this you still feel you want to be there for the big sports party, there could be a number of bargain deals, as there are more hotel rooms than likely visitors, tourist chiefs admit.
Let the Games begin.. and hold the front page.
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