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The IOC could rue the day Rio was awarded the Olympics

19th April, 2016
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With collapses and infrastructure issues, Rio doesn't appear ready for the Olympics. And that's before we even get to the political turmoil. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Expert
19th April, 2016
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In 2009, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was the popular President of Brazil who had lifted his country to become the world’s eighth largest economy.

More than 20 million people rose out of poverty, and Rio de Janeiro became the first South American city to be awarded the Olympic Games.

In the opening IOC session, Madrid won 28 votes, Rio 26, Tokyo 22, and Chicago went out with 18.

In the second session, Rio won 40 votes, Madrid 29, and Tokyo went out with 20.

In the final head-to-head, Rio’s 66 votes thumped Madrid’s 32.

‘Lula’, as he was affectionately known, was a visionary, and Brazil was looking good.

In 2011, Dilma Rousseff became president, and today Brazil is in political and economic turmoil, with corruption and crime rife.

Two days ago, the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil’s lower house) voted in favour of President Rousseff’s impeachment on charges of corruption.

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“This is not an impeachment issue, it’s a coup,” was President Rousseff’s defiant reaction.

It’s only 108 days to Rio’s opening ceremony, but if the Brazilian Senate also vote in favour of impeachment, President Rousseff must step aside immediately for 180 days before her trial.

That means Brazil won’t have an elected President for the Games, inflation is running at 10 per cent, and facilities are well behind schedule, prompting AOC boss John Coates, wearing his IOC vice-presidency hat, to describe Rio’s preparation the “worst I’ve ever experienced, far worse than Athens for the 2004 Games”.

That’s a big call, but only the tip of the chaotic iceberg.

Odelbrecht is a large Brazilian construction company responsible for building more than half the Olympic venues, but the company has been crippled by the jailing of the boss for 19 years on bribery and money-laundering charges.

Rio has run so short of money that health and education budgets have been cut. One of the major side issues could well be the intended rail link to make travel between venues much easier could be replaced by buses, just adding to the overall turmoil.

Rio’s acting Governor, Francisco Dornelles, recently predicted city-owned properties will have to be sold to address the huge financial losses.

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So in the space of seven years, Brazil has gone from smooth sailing when Rio was first awarded the Games, to a basket case – and the Games haven’t even started.

To make matters worse, if that’s possible, the Zika virus that started in Brazil has spread to other countries.

It’s hard to see how Rio can survive so such turmoil, but where there’s a will there’s a way, and the IOC can’t afford to have an Olympic Games failure.

If so, the IOC would be the laughing stock of world sport, despite the fact not one of the damning negatives in Rio has been the fault of the governing body.

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