The ODDEST show on Earth!

After the oohs and the boos, it’s mile-long venue queues and Olympic-size chaos

FROM the Zika virus to poisoned water and much more besides, it is an Olympic Games plagued by problems. And that’s before it even began.

When the events finally got under way yesterday, things were no different – with a sequence of chaotic episodes.

The tone was set at Friday’s opening ceremony, which, despite some delightful sequences, saw rows of empty seats and the deeply unpopular interim Brazilian President’s speech drowned out by an angry crowd.

Yesterday, though, a shambolic Day One of Rio 2016 saw:

Athletes compete in front of empty stands as ‘mile-long’ queues to enter venues led to thousands of fans missing events. The mother of British swimming gold medal hope Adam Peaty, Caroline Peaty, feared she would miss his swimming heat – in which he broke a world record.

Officials reportedly try to speed up the entry process by abandoning X-ray machine checks – raising concerns over security.

Tensions rise across the city after police shot dead a mugger near the opening ceremony venue – and a woman was killed by robbers in a separate incident near another Olympic site.

Bomb squad officers cause panic by carrying out a controlled explosion near the finishing line of the men’s cycle race, an event which brought disappointment for Team GB.

The organisers had hoped the Games would get under way with the ‘sexiest’ opening ceremony ever on Friday night. But while it was not without charm, many were left feeling that it was a bit of an odd concoction, with too many sacrifices made to political correctness – a dreary lecture on climate change being one example. If only the organisers had concentrated more on what Rio does best.

As one elderly Brazilian man in the crowd noted: ‘For one thing the samba girls are too covered up – they should be nearly nude.’

Perhaps, as some suspected, the heavy hand of the American networks, who paid billions for the TV rights, was to blame. Were the girls covered up to appease Biblebashers in Kansas?

It didn’t augur well when Pele, who had been due to light the Olympic cauldron, pulled out at the last minute.

There were some breathtaking set-pieces, though, and plenty of fireworks and colour to admire. In the end it was the music that really stirred the audience... Samba legend Paulinho da Viola, in a gleaming blue suit, strumming the national anthem and, of course, the bossa nova classic The Girl From Ipanema.

Inevitably there were those who felt it was all done on the cheap (and compared to the previous ceremonies in London and Beijing, much less had indeed been spent) with, at times, too much reliance on smoke-and-mirror visual effects. But with Brazil experiencing political and economic turmoil, when it came to cost, the organisers were damned either way.

As it was, many in Rio felt the Games should never have gone ahead and throughout Friday there were demonstrations across the city to underline this message, culminating in violence near the Maracana Stadium before the ceremony began.

Inside, volunteers in red shirts were drafted in to fill the empty seats.

Despite being part of the official programme, interim President Michel Temer, who took power in May in a controversial impeachment process, was not introduced as the opening ceremony began.

In fact, he was nowhere to be found. Spectators nudged each other. ‘Where is he? Is he really this scared?’ they asked. Three hours later, he appeared. In an apparent attempt to minimise any unpleasantness, he was not introduced by name or title. A voice simply started talking. Quickly. But within seconds, the crowd cottoned on and booing and pre-recorded cheering designed to counter it drowned out the second half of his speech.

Meanwhile, there were claims that Russia is set to be banned from the Paralympics later this month. The International Paralympic Committee is expected to do what its Olympic counterpart did not and exclude Russia outright. It is expected to announce the decision publicly today.

RIO 2016 was rocked by a doping scandal last night after reports the Kenyan team’s track and field manager, Major Michael Rotich, offered to protect drugs cheats from testers. Rotich is said to have offered athletes 12 hours’ notice that drug testers were due to visit, in return for £10,000.

The allegations were made in The Sunday Times, which claimed to have caught Rotich making his pitch to undercover reporters.

Rotich claimed he went along with reporters’ requests because he was investigating them.

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