As August slowly came to an end, the Olympic flame shot out its final, struggling sparks over Rio. It’s over. Brazil survived. Just.
The 2016 Summer Olympics will go down in history as one of the most scandalous, disorganized and dangerous games the world ever witnessed.
The 2016 Summer Olympics will go down in history as one of the most scandalous, disorganized and dangerous games the world ever witnessed.
Two weeks of chaotic traffic, insufficient strategic backup plans – an entire day’s’ swim schedule had to be rearranged because one (!) bus driver didn’t make it to the arena on time – and lifethreatening incidents all culminated when reports came about the death of Stefan Henze, the German Canoe Slalom coach whose life was taken from him after he suffered head injuries following a taxi accident on his way back to the Olympic Village in Rio.
Together with fellow German Marcus Becker, he became an Olympic medalist when the pair won silver in the C2 slalom event at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Stefan was 35 years old.
Sure, car accidents happen everywhere. There is no denying that.
However, the death of Stefan Henze symbolizes something that we really knew all along; Rio should never have hosted the Olympics.
The Brazilians are passionate people which explains how they managed to pull of the FIFA World Cup two years ago.
The Olympics, though, is an entirely different animal.
First of all, instead of having the events split up in different cities across the country everything is centered in one place which requires tremendous amounts of logistical organization.
Second, the Olympic Games require economic resources like no other. Although the games are expected to cost less than London ($14Bn) and Sochi ($20Bn), Brazil’s economy were already one of the world’s most threatened prior to the games.
And last but not least, the country does not share the same passion for the olympics as it does for its holy grail soccer.
How does this happen? How do some countries get to host major events when there is no logical rationale to support such decision?
The case was made that the games had never been held in South America and that this was a way to bring the entire world together.
That same reasoning was utilized when soccer federation FIFA decided to elect South Africa to host the 2012 World Cup and Qatar the 2022 World Cup.
As great as that may sound, these decisions reek of blatant corruption and the World Cup in Qatar is already the most disreputable worldwide event not yet hosted.
The International Olympic Committee and the International Association of Athletics Federation have got to pull themselves up by their bootstraps to reestablish some sort of trust with the international crowd.
Their debacle with the Russian Federation that caused the entire Russian Athletics team to get disqualified, including long jumper Darya Klishina who had been training in the US solely since 2013, was not only unfairly disqualified but also an extremely pitiful attempt by the IOC to solve a problem that is so much more deeply rooted in global sports than one federation can account for.
A lot of negativity? Here’s some more.
Three athletes that always made us forget about the bureaucratic nonsense have now competed in their final Olympics.
The case was made that the games had never been held in South America and that this was a way to bring the entire world together.
Mo Farah got his second double, Usain Bolt his third triple and Michael Phelps finished his Olympic dominance by winning his 23rd gold in the 4×100 meter team medley in front of the tears of his mother Debbie.
The tears represent the end of an era, and the IOC should be concerned of the future when three such fantastic athletes won’t be disguising their dirty work.
Next up is the Paralympics. Lets hope the Olympic flame can produce one last spurt of energy to take Rio de Janeiro through two more weeks of organizational mayhem.