The Opening Ceremony for most talked about Summer Olympiad in recent history is tonight, kicking off a two-week period where everyone and their grandmother who likes British soap operas will pay at least a little bit of attention.
Unfortunately for the host city Rio de Janeiro and host nation Brazil, this Olympiad has dominated headlines for months for all the wrong reasons. Some of the most notable reasons include the Zika virus, a mosquito-transmitted disease that leads to birth defects in unborn fetuses which has caused many athletes including basketball player Pau Gasol to either withdraw from competition or take such drastic measures as freezing their sperm for future use.
Another issue is the crime and treatment of the impoverished in Rio by the Brazilian government. Speaking of the Brazilian government, it is falling apart with President Dilma Rousseff being investigated for serious corruption. Toss in serious water pollution at the site of some of the boating events and the fact that the Olympic village is by some accounts a half finished construction site and one shudders at the thought of what else could go wrong. Easily the worst Olympics ever right? Wrong, two others spring to mind.
The first is Munich 1972, which ought to be remembered for the domination of Swimmer Mark Spitz who won a then-record 7 Gold Medals in one Olympics (since broken by fellow American Swimmer Micheal Phelps). Instead, it is remembered for the senseless slaughter of the Israeli national team by terrorists and in hindsight how tactless then IOC head Avery Brundage was when he said the games should continue.
However, the worst run Olympics before Rio is not one that was attacked by unanticipated terror, it is Montreal 1976 which was protested by twenty-eight countries, mostly African, after the IOC did not ban New Zealand whose national Rugby team had toured South Africa, itself banned from the Olympics since 1964 over racist apartheid politics. In addition to that Public Relations black eye, there was also the issue of stadium construction (see a pattern with that?) which was behind schedule and cost an exorbitant amount, combined with the fact that the stadium which still exists in Montreal has not had a major tenant since 2004 when the Expos were taken under shady circumstances relocated to Washington D.C. contributes to the notion of failure. The city of Montreal did not finish paying the debts associated with this fiasco of a games until 2006, thirty years after the closing ceremony and two years after its last stadium tenant left.
I am not a sadist, I would like fewer things better than to be made a fool by a rousing success at the Rio Olympic Games, but I worry about how Brazil given its tenuous political climate will be able to pay off its debts which are no doubt staggering. Also, it is issues with Host Cities like this that make the Olympic Games so unsexy to host anymore, maybe next time the IOC should instead pick cities that can host the games without such a destructive feel to them with pre-existing stadiums. As Avery Brundage said, also at a very inopportune moment, “the Games must go on” and I will gulp with anxiety until Usain Bolt and company can distract me.
