2/27/2024 0 Comments Aftermath game 2017"The promised legacy of the Olympics achieving a safe city for all people was not delivered," Amnesty International wrote in its September 2016 post-Rio report. Many favelas still lack running water or proper sewage removal. The state of Rio is still unable to pay its teachers, hospital workers, police and other public employees on time, if at all. In the first three months of 2017, violent crime spiked 26 percent compared with the same period in 2016. According to Brazil's Institute of Public Safety, street robberies are up 48 percent and deadly assaults by 21 percent, to the highest rates since 2009. Promises that the Olympics would modernize Rio and make its streets safer and favelas cleaner have also failed. In July, the organizing committee asked the International Olympic Committee for help with its debt the IOC said no. Bloomberg reported in April that the Olympic organizers were attempting to pay creditors with air conditioners, portable energy units and electrical cables. Rio officials blame poor handling by the athletes.Īlmost a year since the Games closed, the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee still owes $40 million to creditors. And the 31 towers that made up the athletes village, which were set to be transformed into luxury condos, now sit largely vacant.Įven some of the medals awarded to the athletes have tarnished or cracked, with more than 10 percent of them sent back to Brazil for repair. Rio's new mayor, Marcelo Crivella, has scrapped plans to turn the handball arena into four public schools. The maintenance alone will cost the government approximately $14 million this year. After the Games, the city solicited bids for private companies to run the park, but no one bid, leaving Brazil's Ministry of Sport with the task - and expense. Earlier this month a fire from a flying lantern torched the roof of the Rio velodrome, badly damaging its Siberian Pine track. Ten miles away at the Olympic Park, things aren't much better. The 2016 Olympic Games have left crumbling stadiums and debt instead of the promised financial and sporting benefits for Rio de Janiero and Brazil. A Deodoro elevator once used to lift fans over a busy road now leads to nowhere. Brazil's Federal Court of Audit (TCU) reported last week that another abandoned pool, at the Deodoro Aquatics Center, is now covered in bugs, mud and rodent feces. The community pool that was supposed to come out of the canoe slalom course was closed in December and has yet to re-open. Even the iconic soccer stadium, the Maracanã, has been vandalized, and had its power shut off completely after amassing a $950,000 electric bill.ĭeodoro Olympic Park, long hailed by Brazilian politicians and Olympic proponents as a path to upgrade one of Rio's poorer neighborhoods, is shuttered. While 15 of the original 27 venues have hosted some sort of event since the Games, others sit largely abandoned, their decay and disrepair a constant reminder of what was meant to be. Timed with an embarrassing political corruption scandal and the largest economic crisis in Brazil's history, the hosting of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Games has resulted in a perfect storm of unfulfilled promises. The 2016 Rio Olympics were supposed to be the second of a one-two punch announcing Brazil's arrival as a world power through dominance in sports. "We missed the opportunity to transform sports in Brazil, to grow all of the sports to a professional level and to engage children in sports, to build the next champions. "After reaching a good result, I felt a spark of hope. "What I'm living now I couldn't imagine in my wildest dreams," says the 25-year-old Wu, who won the silver medal in the 10-meter air pistol event. If anything, the Olympics have made it worse. But the success has done little to improve Wu's way of life. Wu's home and the others on the block are scheduled for demolition, soon to be replaced by a pair of towers filled with luxurious condos, lavish homes that one might think would come with bringing home one of the 19 Olympic medals Brazilians won in Rio a year ago. The narrow corridor on the side yard where he hung his targets and chased his Olympic dream for 12 years will meet its final fate: a bulldozer. The small yard and garage where he trained to win Brazil's first Olympic shooting medal since 1920 will soon become a construction site. But in a few weeks, Wu will no longer call this place home. It stands in stark contrast to the tall, opulent buildings that line some of the city's richest streets. The modest 860-square-foot home sits on a narrow street in the swanky Itaim Bibi neighborhood of São Paulo, the sprawling economic capital of Brazil. A hole in the wall where the air conditioner once sat. A few feet away, boxes filled with pistols and ammunition climb the stairs. On the floor beside him sits a suitcase overstuffed with clothes. This story is also available in Spanish and Portuguese.įelipe Wu opens the door, apologizing for the mess.
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