What Rio needs before the Olympics kick off
OPINION: At last, Rio is starting to look like an Olympic host city.
The airport is plastered with mascots Vin´ıcius and Tom, highspeed bus lanes criss-crossing the city have been stencilled ‘‘Rio 2016’’, and the army’s taken over Copacabana.
The venues are finally ready, too, and tomorrow, athletes will be begin arriving at the luxury Olympic Village, where dozens – if not hundreds – of Coke fridges (even in the gym), and condoms (450,000, them.
But the city’s not quite ready for the Olympics just yet, with a few crucial details needed over the next 12 days. MORE OLYMPIC SPIRIT To say Brazilians aren’t excited is an understatement: less than half the population wants to play host, and most believe the Olympics will bring more harm and shame than they will good.
Some 1.7 million tickets are still unsold, although Rio 2016 rightly points out that Cariocas – the people of Rio – are notorious for or per athlete) await leaving things to the last minute.
There may still be a few empty seats in the stadiums, but there’s unlikely to be much fuss on the streets come Games-time, not least because of the 85,000 security personnel. Just as the pre-World Cup protests fizzled out before kickoff, expect to see calm – even excitement – for a good three weeks (and cross your fingers Brazil win if they meet Germany on the football field). SOME WILLING GOLFERS You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in Rio who believes it’s Zika keeping top male golfers away from the Games. Rio 2016’s president Carlos Nuzman has said what most everyone else is thinking: they aren’t coming because there’s no prize money.
Their absence means more room for a more amateur-style competition. But it makes you wonder why golf is in the Olympics at all. A LITTLE LESS DANGER Street crime was pegged as the main danger to athletes and spectators, but even in the past few days, terrorism fears have gone through the roof. A Brazilian group declared its allegiance to Islamic State, the French government revealed a threat to its team, and four people on terror watch lists applied for Olympic accreditation (they were, thankfully, denied).
Although Brazil has counterterrorism support from the US, UK, France and Belgium, there’s still concern a lone wolf could slip through the gaps, not least because hundreds of security cameras never got put up, and the company carrying out X-rays, patdowns and bag checks at venues has no apparent experience. A CRUCIAL METRO LINE Work began on the subway to the main Olympic suburb six years The people of Rio are notorious for leaving things to the last minute ago, yet in typical Rio style, it’s not quite ready.
The organisers’ Plan B is putting spectators on a two-hour bus journey to the Olympic Park. Consider it a metaphor for Rio’s long road to hosting the Games. still