The Olympics start six months from tomorrow and Rio de Janeiro is ready — as long as athletes cover up in anti-mosquito repellent, ignore the polluted water and do not ask for televisions in their rooms.
Nicknamed the “Marvelous City,” Rio is sure to put on a spectacular show.
After the opening ceremony on Aug. 5 in the legendary Maracana Stadium, 10,500 athletes are to compete against what is to be one of the most photogenic Olympic backdrops ever.
Photo: Reuters
The likes of Usain Bolt are to run under the gaze of the Christ the Redeemer statue towering from the Corcovado, while beach volleyball is to take place on the sweeping Copacabana beach and sailors are to duel in the shadow of Sugarloaf Mountain.
In a world beset by war, terrorism and environmental calamity, the Olympics — an organization itself badly shaken by corruption and doping scandals — is likely to give everyone a chance to feel good again.
The Olympics “will be an unforgettable fiesta,” Rio 2016 organizing committee spokesman Mario Andrada said on Tuesday.
However, fears of the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus and fallout from Brazil’s worst economic crisis since the 1930s are casting a long shadow.
Incidents of Zika, which has been blamed for microcephaly — a condition causing abnormally small heads — in babies born to women infected while pregnant, have exploded across Latin America.
This week, Brazil followed the US and other nations in warning pregnant women to keep away. The Australian Olympic Committee told pregnant athletes to think “very carefully” before competing.
Brazil is desperately trying to eradicate mosquito breeding sites, and Andrada said that August is the Brazilian winter, when mosquito numbers fall sharply.
However, with no vaccine likely for years, total safety cannot be guaranteed.
Athletes and tourists should “wear appropriate clothing, close windows and use repellent,” Andrada said.
Avoiding bacteria-filled water is to be even harder for sailors and windsurfers at the Games.
They are to compete in Rio’s stunning, yet horrifically polluted Guanabara Bay. Authorities had promised to clean the natural harbor, but even today, about half of Rio’s sewage pours in untreated.
Even so, regular testing has shown that there are no risks to health, officials say.
Back in 2009, when Rio won the Olympic bid, Brazil was an emerging markets star.
Today, a collapse in commodity prices is fueling Brazil’s deepest recession since the 1930s, while a corruption scandal has sucked in top politicians and executives, and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is fighting impeachment.
Organizers are rebranding the Olympics an austerity Games.
A budget of about 39 billion real (US$9.8 billion) is in a different league to Beijing’s 2008 US$40 billion splurge. Uunlike London 2012, where the budget ended up more than triple the original estimate, Rio is trying to tighten its belt.
Cuts of up to 20 percent in the 7.4 billion real operating budget mean athletes are not to get televisions in their Olympic Village rooms, VIPs are to eat simple Brazilian beans and rice dishes, and fewer staff are to get printers.
Seating has been reduced at some venues, including the slashing of a planned grandstand at the rowing and canoeing venue. Even volunteer numbers are being cut from 70,000 to 50,000 in order to save on uniforms and training.
One area where no money is to be spared is security, with about 85,000 police and soldiers deploying in Rio — double the number used in London.
Brazil has never suffered a Muslim militant terror attack, but in the wake of bloodshed in Paris last year, Western nations in particular are worried that the Olympics might be targeted.
Even without terrorism, Rio can be a dangerous place, with large slums controlled by drug traffickers and turned into no-go areas for tourists and sometimes even police.
Andrada said the security team would manage.
“We have no worries about the security of tourists and of athletes,” he said. “Rio will be the safest city in the world.”
Last week, Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo da Costa Paes’ office declared nearly all sporting sites close to completion. The same goes for the Olympic Village, a collection of new apartment blocks next to a working-class neighborhood bulldozed last year.
However, hiccups continue. Two weeks ago, authorities broke contracts for construction of the equestrian and tennis facilities, saying work was slow and incomplete.
A new metro line bypassing congested highways between the center and west of the city is 83 percent complete, the consortium said last month. Yet with inauguration due just one month before the Games, there is barely room for error.
However, the nation’s ultimate test of success is to be ticket sales.
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