Rio-2016 News

[Victor Mata]

This is what happens when you host an event like the Olympics in a country where the people have no money to begin with. Regardless of the current economic downturn of the country, Brazilians weren't that much better off financially before Rio was awarded the games. And also I imagine most Brazilians could care less about the Olympics, especially when the country just finished hosting the World Cup 2 years ago, which is if they even had any money they would spend it all to try to attend those games since they eat and breathe soccer/football.

I believe South Africa also had a ticket sales problem among their local population as well. I even read somewhere that at some games they ushered in some locals for free just to make the stadium look crowded. Not sure if there was any truth to that though.

You know nothing, buddy. This common perception about Brazil and events held here was proven wrong in 2007, wrong in 2014 and is about to be again in a few months. But some people refuse to change their backwards opinions and too bad GamesBids is so full of them. The boards are becoming emptier and less and less relevant because of all this redundance.

[zekekelso]

If they really doubt their ability to sell tickets (as opposed to sales just being slow) open up sales to the rest of the world and we'll buy a whole lot of them.

Actually, if I remember, the last round of ticket sales were supposed to be open to everyone. I wonder if they'll actually do that.

[Rob2012]

So just to compare with London. The last Summer Games finished with 96% tickets sold. At this stage (well, a month later, that's the best I could find), London had sold 70% of available tickets.

London eventually sold 8.2 million out of the 8.5 million tickets issued for the Games
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-olympics-rio-idUKKCN0W41RZ

There are 1.5m football tickets remaining and a further 1m or so across 24 other Olympic events. (April 2012)
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/apr/18/olympics-tickets-how-many-left

Bach seems convinced Brazilians will buy later. The discrepancy is quite big, so let's hope he's right.

[paul]

AP / RIO DE JANEIRO — Rio de Janeiro's mayor has suggested that spectators do not buy tickets for rowing events at the Olympics - but instead find a spot near the venue and watch the competition for free.

After handing over the Deodoro Sports Complex to 2016 Olympic organizers, Rio mayor Eduardo Paes told reporters that if he were a regular citizen he would say to Rio residents "do not spend your money on this (rowing)".

"Go watch at the border of the lagoon, drinking your beer in peace with your family. Put your beach chair there because you will watch rowing for free", Paes said.

[paul]

Column: Players avoiding Rio as if Olympic golf is bad idea-San Francisco Crinicle

The plane was ready, so that wasn't the issue.

PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem had a free charter lined up for the best players in the world to jet down to Brazil, play 18, and head back home. The occasion was a test event for the new Olympic sport on a golf course built specifically for the games in August.

The problem was, no one wanted to go. Not on a charter, or even a fast boat.

It's already clear the players aren't exactly rallying around the five-ring Olympic flag. They've got better things to do in upcoming months, preparing for the traditional four major championships and, for some, the Ryder Cup in early October.

The refusal of any players to go to Brazil for the test event does more than reflect a widespread ambivalence toward the Olympics. It's a statement that chasing dollars on the PGA Tour is far more important than chasing Olympic gold.

[FlaBadger]

Rio has been seeking to save $500 million to balance its $1.8 billion operating budget, but Nuzman insisted the quality of the games would not be hurt by the economic pinch.

"The games will not be affected by any cuts," he said. "There are no cuts that impact the games, the athletes or the field of play. We are not cost cutting. We are organizing a balanced budget. The most important thing is that we will have absolutely fantastic games in spectacular venues."

It's hard to imagine that, at this late date, it would even be possible to cut $500 million from a $1.8 billion operating budget - let alone that cuts of that magnitude would have little apparent impact.

The elimination of TVs in the athletes village, reduction in temporary seating around a few venues, and move from reserved to general admission seating in some others won't make even a dent in the budget. Even the reduction in the number of official volunteers isn't of such a magnitude that the savings will be any more than slight. Have more significant cuts been announced?

[Mauricio]

In the northern hemisphere, Summer Olympic Games can be timed to coincide with the long summer break for schools and colleges. As it's winter in Rio in August, I see that the Federal State University of Rio is having to have a special "Recesso Olímpico" from 5-21 August (which won't cover the Paralympics, of course).

Are all educational institutions in the area doing something similar?

The 2016 School Calendar was modified at the beginning of this year to reduce car traffic and avoid any extra burden to the road system during the Games. School winter holidays which normally occur in the second half of July were elongated in fifteen days and postponed to August, all over the State. It is a usual strategy in major events around the world and it can be quite useful. However, the strike initiated by teachers of state schools can make impossible the planned postponement, since the law determines 200 school days each year. It will be difficult to find out enough time to follow what law requires without using some days of August, if the strike lasts for a long time. The worst of all - and unsaid news - is what is behind the strike of teachers: salaries in arrears and installments; lack of money to pay food and transportation to students; lack of funds for the maintenance of schools; lack of security for the performance of education professionals in the allegedly said pacified areas. These are some consequences of the moral, political and economic crises the Country is passing through since the scandals of corruption in the Federal Government were revealed. Mme. Rousseff's party is umbeatable in performing things like that.

[TorchbearerSydney]

School holidays also frees up buses and roads for Olympic transport...

[Ikarus360]

Political situation in Brazil is going to get even more tense now that ex-president Lula da Silva was arrested and being interrogated by the police for apparently being involved in very bad corruption issues related with Petrobras and Dilma. At the same time the minister of Justice has resigned and one officialist senator has made confessions where Dilma is also involved in the corruption.

Are we going to see a repeat of Seoul '88? (where the Korean dictatorship felt just months before the start of the games)

[thorbr]

Just a remark: Lula was not arrested.

Political situation in Brazil is going to get even more tense now that ex-president Lula da Silva was arrested and being interrogated by the police for apparently being involved in very bad corruption issues related with Petrobras and Dilma. At the same time the minister of Justice has resigned and one officialist senator has made confessions where Dilma is also involved in the corruption.

Are we going to see a repeat of Seoul '88? (where the Korean dictatorship felt just months before the start of the games)

[Victor Mata]

And there's not dictatorship in Brazil. Currently...

[gotosy]

An Olympic oasis

Mar 5th 2016

BACK in 2009 when the Olympic games were awarded to Rio de Janeiro, the stars seemed to be aligned. Brazil was prospering, thanks to strong global demand for its oil, iron ore, soya beans and other commodities. Federal, state and city governments were working well together as close political allies. Now cariocas (as inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro are known) might well feel that fate has forsaken them.

The country is suffering its worst recession since the 1930s. The federal government is paralysed by a corruption scandal. The unpopular president, Dilma Rousseff, faces possible impeachment for allegedly breaking budget rules. The collapse of the oil price has hit Rio de Janeiro state, the centre of the oil industry, especially hard, forcing it to slash its budgets.

Yet the city of Rio resembles an oasis in Brazil’s political and economic desert. Thanks partly to the games and to booming revenue from tourism, the money is still flowing. Eduardo Paes, the city’s mayor since 2009, seized control of venue construction and many transport projects. While stadium-building for the 2014 football World Cup in Brazil was marked by scandal and last-minute rush, the Olympics are on track with five months to go. At the Olympic Park, the venues are all but ready. When Bello visited a fortnight ago a hose was filling the pool at the aquatic centre; at the multipurpose Arena Carioca, a taekwondo contest was about to start.

There are three worries. The state government has failed to clean up the polluted waters of Guanabara Bay, the venue for yachting. Mr Paes retorts that races will be held at the bay’s mouth, where the water is clean, and that two dummy runs went well. Then there is the new metro line being built by the state government to link Ipanema and Barra de Tijuca, the site of the Olympic Park. A recent leaked memo from the mayor’s office fretted that it wouldn’t be ready in time. The state government insists it will be; it says 90% of the work is already done. School holidays have been moved back to coincide with the Olympics; traffic may be more of a problem for the Paralympics in September.

The biggest concern is Zika. Since the disease was detected in 2015, 1.5m Brazilians may have caught it. Usually it just involves a few days of mild fever and aches. But it has been linked to microcephaly (brain damage) in the babies of a small minority of women who caught it while pregnant. And a tiny number of Zika sufferers develop Guillain-Barré syndrome, a creeping (though normally reversible) paralysis.

Zika is hard to test for. Most of Brazil’s 641 confirmed cases of microcephaly are in the poor north-east. But Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that is the main vector, is also responsible for dengue, which Rio has suffered since 1977. The insects breed in stagnant water.

Across the country, the government has stepped up efforts to control the mosquito. In Gardênia Azul, a favela near the Olympic Park, a team of health agents does house-to-house visits. Geraldo Marques, a mosquito-control specialist, checks that empty beer bottles are dry and covered; he drizzles insecticide into a drain. “The saucers under plants are the greatest villain,” he says.

The problem, says Rubem César Fernandes of Viva Rio, a big NGO which, among other things, runs health clinics for the city government, is that many urban spaces are beyond public control. “The population knows what to do, but they don’t have the discipline to do it every week. It’s a cultural thing.” It doesn’t help that a third of dwellings in the Rio area lack a proper sewerage connection.

Mr Paes stresses that the games will take place in the dry season; cases of dengue normally drop in August and September. Part of the worry about Zika is that so much about it is unknown, and therefore scary. Though pregnant women and their sexual partners will need to seek medical advice, for the mass of sports fans the virus should not be a worry.

There is already much to celebrate about the Rio Olympics, though with their city turned into an obstacle course of road works for the new metro and bus lanes, cariocas may not yet feel like cheering. There has been no obvious waste or corruption. The city has used the games as a catalyst for a wider transformation. Mr Paes tore down an elevated motorway that scarred the old port, burying it in a tunnel. The port area now hosts new museums and public spaces; next month a tramway will open there. Apart from better public transport, the Olympics may bequeath an overdue revival of Rio’s decayed and crime-ridden historic centre. If urban renewal were a sport, that would win a gold medal.

http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21693983-zika-will-not-be-much-threat-rio-games-olympic-oasis?platform=hootsuite

[paul]

DENVER — An infectious disease specialist from the University of Utah will chair a group formed by the U.S. Olympic Committee to address concerns about the Zika virus and other health issues at the Rio de Janeiro Games this summer.

Carrie Byington will head the group that will establish best practices for those in the U.S. Olympic delegation traveling to Brazil. The mosquito-borne virus is an epidemic in Central and Latin America; the World Health Organization has declared it a global health emergency.

Zika causes mild illness or no symptoms in most people but is believed to be linked to a birth defect that causes babies to be born with unusually small heads.

The USOC panel will develop educational material and be available to offer updates and create plans for athletes who become ill.

[Cauê]

Something about the right wing coup in Brazil currently (the title of the video is exaggerated, but the interview is interesting):

The right wing coup in Brazil (in English)

[Ikarus360]

Here we go again. Commies ruin a country rich with resources, rob lots of money for their own profit and once everything explode on their faces, they always put the blame on "muh evil American Empire" on everything instead of taking responsability for their actions. Where did I heard this story before?

And they wonder why they got so much **** on the 60's-80's. Not wanting to defend the far-right, but the leftists were never liked in Latin America for good reasons. And what they're doing today are pretty much proving this fact. Good thing this stupid leftie trend is almost over.

[Victor Mata]

There were never commies in power in Brazil. The current economic crisis (which affects the developing world) is aggravated by the conservative congress which wants to shutdown the government to force a succession of power because they've been losing elections since 2002 and Dilma Rousseff's heavily centralized style of administration. Brazil's current standards of living, social policies and - most important - new middle classed that was raised out of poverty wouldn't exist without this center-left administration we had. This is nowhere as close as the bolivarian presidents around. There were no calls for socialist revolutions by any high-rank politicians and neither the same kind of personality cult like those of Chávez or Morales.

But the thing is: the conservatives and right-wing liberals are walking side by side with the same people who love the military dictatorship (that was backed by the US, yes), small nazi/fascist groups and evangelical wackos. Opposition is selling their souls to the devil to topple the president. And we know how Latin America cycles through history with times of social development, then people think their rich and adopt a right wing rhetoric, then they elect a conservative government and their fantasy crumbles, then they elect someone else and the cycle repeats.

[Mauricio]

Here we go again. Commies ruin a country rich with resources, rob lots of money for their own profit and once everything explode on their faces, they always put the blame on "muh evil American Empire" on everything instead of taking responsability for their actions. Where did I heard this story before?

And they wonder why they got so much **** on the 60's-80's. Not wanting to defend the far-right, but the leftists were never liked in Latin America for good reasons. And what they're doing today are pretty much proving this fact. Good thing this stupid leftie trend is almost over.

Some points to enrich the discussion, although it may seem meaningless to a foreigner who looks to Brazil. But let's try. The GDP per capita of Brazil - the ratio between the total of goods produced per year divided by the number of inhabitants - rose from $ 4,931.50 in 2006 to US $ 6,010.78 in 2013 and had a drop to $ 6,969.67 in 2014. Official figures for 2015 are unknown yet, but thas year there was a drop of 3.8% in GDP and a decline of about 100% of the real - the currency in which the transactions are made by brazilians - against the dollar. From these numbers it is possible to understand to what New Middle Class referrer those who unconditionally defend the Workers' Party: a large group of the population, around 30 million people, rather than survive on a dollar a day came to survive about two. The increase in the period 2006-2013 was due to two major factors: 1) financial stability due to responsible fiscal policies adopted during the creation of the Plano Real in the 1990s by the then President Itamar Franco and followed by Presidents Fernando Henrique and Luis Inacio Lula da Silva (in his first term); 2 - strong foreign demand for commodities during Lula's second mandate, which led to an accumulation of foreign exchange reserves that allowed Brazil to conduct internal investments in large proportions. As a result, there was the creation of jobs in the country and the growth of the service sector. However, since 2008, the Federal Government adopted a new economic matrix, based on heavy domestic investments, such as counter-cyclical response to the great international crisis of that time and encouraging the expansion of personal loans by Brazilians. As a result of the ever increasing government spending and the maintenance of rates of foreign exchange trading at unrealistic levels, the country came to import as it had never done before. This led to the impoverishment of the national industry. To avoid breaking them, the second Lula administration gave high subsidies amounts to sectors such as the automotive industry, while it kept the public tariffs below the market price and implemented its countercyclical and populist policy to stimulate personal lending in large scale. The result was what anyone who understands a little about economy could provide: always higher expenses. There was no problem as there was external demand for commodities. But when China ceased to grow as much as it used to and lowered the demand of Brazilian commodities, the situation became unsunteinable since there was no longer where to take the money needed to pay for the ever increasing government spending. As a result, it installed the economic crisis in which the country is: high inflation, increasing unemployment in a high environment of household debt and distrust of investors in relation to the Government. The setback to the population in relation to Dilma stems from the fact of having lied during the presidential campaing about the unsustainability of the unreal situation the country lived. This is the economic foundation of the crisis.

The moral and criminal matter of the crisis stems from the fact that agents of the Federal Government and of political parties that supported the government grant economic favors to specific groups in exchange for kickbacks. According to a judge of the Supreme Court, the Workers 'Party has set up a "criminal scheme of power" to grant favors, including the approval of laws, to contractors who, in exchange, repassed impressive sums to the Workers' Party, the allied parties of the government and the personnel nominated by political parties and officially named by Lula and Dilma to work in key positions of the High Federal Administration and Petrobras. The cascade of scandals which then proceeded is still not known enough. Lula is currently investigated based on the suspicion that has received in exchange for spurious acts a luxury apartment - with one exclusive elevator – in one of the most expensive places in the country and of owning a grange where contractors made improvements ranging from kitchen makeover to the installation of an antenna for mobile signal. Dilma can come to lose the post of President of the Republic because she disobeyed the Fiscal Responsibility Law implemented by the Plano Real, and for trying to obstruct the Justice and interfere in the decisions of the National Congress. In the first case, she can lose the mandate; in the second, beyond the loss of her mandate, she can be imprisoned.

There is no conspiracy theory. These are facts that have been revealed by the Federal Police - the Brazilian equivalent to the FBI - in determination of Justice. These are the facts. The Workers' Party did not invent corruption in Brazil, this is evident. But no other organization has stolen that much before. Only Petrobras, according to the company's own data, lost 88.6 billion reais (about 44.3 billion dollars at the time) by 2014 with the scams. Note that the Brazilian Company hired PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) to audit the accounts presented by Petrobras in 2014, but the PWC refused to sign the final report because its auditors understood that that was not the real value of the financial shortfall as a result of scandals . It was much bigger.

The Brazilian leftists, as the leftists of any country in the world, have a wonderful performance while they have someone else’s money to spend. In the case of the Brazilian leftists that used to preach against corruption, the limit was the sky. And that brought us where we are. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Cauê]

Is easy to understand:

We have an ignorant middle class in Brazil. Investigations about corruption in the Era of the Party Workers are serious. Before it, the Brazilian judiciary was silent by the presidents. During his eight years in office , former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva invested in policies que Helped take Brazil off the UN Food and Agriculture Organization ( FAO) Hunger Map, and meet the first Millennium Development Goal (To reduce hunger and poverty by 50 % by 2015) and the World Food Summit goal (To reduce by 50 % the number of undernourished), for example.

Lula, Dilma and the "Partido dos Trabalhadores" (Workers Party) are hated by the Brazilian media.

In 1989, Globo TV manipulated the Political debate against Lula (Search for "Boni confessa manipulação da Globo para derrubar Lula e eleger Collor) on youtube).

Our largest communication groups are against Lula, Dilma and the Workers Party. Our judiciary is traditionally against Left Politics. And our middle class is ignorant.

Protests against Dilma and Lula in Brazil called "Military Intervention ", for example.

And the Olympics came to Brazil because... Lula

[Conor15]

According to NBC News, Rio 2016 organizers are confused as to where to put the Olympic cauldron after the opening ceremony (as it's in a football stadium this time).

http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2016/03/08/rio-olympic-cauldron-medal-designs-slogan/

Also the medal designs have been approved and the slogan will be revealed within two to three weeks according to Rio 2016 spokesman, Mario Andrada.

He also stated there will be NO multiple cauldrons, just one. It's weird that despite the fact that Vancouver 2010 had two cauldrons, no summer games has ever had multiple cauldrons.

The ticket designs will also be revealed when there's about less than 100 days to the opening ceremony.

[LatinXTC]

According to NBC News, Rio 2016 organizers are confused as to where to put the Olympic cauldron after the opening ceremony (as it's in a football stadium this time).

http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2016/03/08/rio-olympic-cauldron-medal-designs-slogan/

Also the medal designs have been approved and the slogan will be revealed within two to three weeks according to Rio 2016 spokesman, Mario Andrada.

He also stated there will be NO multiple cauldrons, just one. It's weird that despite the fact that Vancouver 2010 had two cauldrons, no summer games has ever had multiple cauldrons.

The ticket designs will also be revealed when there's about less than 100 days to the opening ceremony.

So they know how they're going to light the cauldron, what the cauldron will look like, and where it will be located during the OC, but after the ceremony is over they don't know where they're going to put it? lol I would think they would have figured this out by now!

[Cauê]

The United Steelworkers stand in solidarity with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and against the right-wing Conservatives (in english)

'Lula is worth the fight'

The World for Lula and for Democracy in Brazil.

[paul]

Top Brazilian sprinter set to miss Rio 2016 after positive drugs test

Leading Brazilian sprinter Ana Cláudia Lemos, the South American 200 metres record holder, has failed a doping test and she is set to miss this year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The 27-year-ol was notified of her failure by the Brazilian Doping Control Authority (ABCD), who then announced it publicly.

Edited March 11, 2016 by paul

[LatinXTC]

Wasn't all of Brazil's athletes, or at the very least track & field athletes, at one point on the verge of being banned from the Rio Olympics because of doping problems at their facilities? I could have sworn there was a story on that on here. And no I'm not confusing it with Russia I know of that one.

[JMarkSnow2012]

It's weird that despite the fact that Vancouver 2010 had two cauldrons, no summer games has ever had multiple cauldrons.

Helsinki 1952 had a ceremonial cauldron within the stadium, and a long-term cauldron on top of a great big tower next door (as illustrated on Bryan Pinkall's Olympic Ceremonies blog)

So they know how they're going to light the cauldron, what the cauldron will look like, and where it will be located during the OC, but after the ceremony is over they don't know where they're going to put it? lol I would think they would have figured this out by now!

Could be one of those sneaky surprise misdirection things, of course.

[paul]

Brazilian Businessman Gets Stiff Sentence in Petrobras Scandal-NYT

RIO DE JANEIRO — Marcelo Odebrecht, the former chief executive of Brazil’s largest construction company, was convicted of corruption and money laundering on Tuesday. He was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison

Mr. Odebrecht’s company won contracts to work on many of the stadiums built for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and has worked on many construction projects for the Summer Olympics including the athletes’ village and the Olympic Park.

Mr. Odebrecht had close ties with President Dilma Rousseff and her mentor and predecessor, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Brazil Prosecutors Seek Arrest of ‘Lula,’ Former President, in Graft Case-NYT

RIO DE JANEIRO — Prosecutors in Brazil are seeking the arrest of the country’s former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, by far the biggest figure to be ensnared by the sweeping corruption investigations that have upended the nation and rattled almost every level of government.