Rio’s victorious bid to host the 2016 Olympics was something special, though I must confess that, at first, despite being a proud carioca, I wasn’t really into it. I can’t quite explain why, perhaps 2016 seemed too distant and unlikely, and I probably wouldn’t even be in town, but I was following whole thing with mild expectations. It was a bit like when you think stuff like ‘it would be awesome to go to Bora Bora’, and then you run some numbers in your head to see if you could afford it, then go online to check airline fares and hotels, then search for touristic venues... You fantasize about the whole thing for a few hours, make a mental note to try and actually take the trip at some point in the future and go on with your life. That was me: I thought it would be cool to have the Games in Rio, but that was all.
Nevertheless, in the days prior to the IOC voting, I suddenly found myself caught in the craze created by the TV and billboards everywhere. They went all out on that final week, trying to get the entire country on board with slogans like ‘Your support can make the difference’. Yeah, right. Still, those things were everywhere, constant reminders of the bid carrying an unmistakable ‘it’s our turn’ vibe with them. I inevitably got sucked in by the atmosphere and actually made plans to watch the presentations and the voting, if I could find them on TV.
Due to the time zone difference, I woke up just after the last presentation had ended, but managed to find live coverage from Copenhagen on BBC and CNN, both of which included a bunch of analysts breaking each presentation down and measuring each city’s chances right before the voting took place. I didn’t even know networks had experts for that kind of thing (and based on the amount of people who were picking Chicago to win, my guess is they don’t, those were just random people picked off the street). In any case, that was a first for me. I usually follow sports close enough to be aware of most developments as they are happening, but when it comes to IOC meetings I had always settled for a short piece on the next day’s news. Not this time, though.
So there I was, on the edge of my seat, cheering and biting my nails, as if watching a World Cup match. Not a final – after all, not many moments in life command that amount of stress – but close. Definitely quarterfinals-worthy. And it wasn’t just because Rio was in the Final Four or anything, but the entire process is nerve-wrecking. The delegates watch that last pitch from all four cities and within 30 minutes they are voting. And this is no papal election, with handwritten votes and white smoke, either. It’s a press-the-key, two-minutes-and-we-are-done electronic voting. If no absolute majority is reached, they read the name of whoever got the least votes aloud and that’s it, they are out and everybody else just moves on. No wonder people in Chicago were absolutely stunned, the procedures are just brutal.
I don’t know if it is that exciting every time, but apparently London beat Paris for the 2012 honors by a mere 4-vote margin in the last round, so maybe I’ve been missing out on a good show there. Lots of drama, lots of tension. The cities bring up their respective A-teams, with no shortage of heavyweights. They also openly try to manipulate the emotions of the IOC delegates, meaning there’s no such thing as a cheap shot.
This time around we had, for starters Obama, Lula, King Juan Carlos of Spain and the Japanese Prime-Minister. I heard Rafael Nadal was there for Madrid, as was Oprah for Chicago. I could see Rio had in its ranks Pelé, Guga Kuerten, Cesar Cielo and Paulo Coelho, among others – pretty much any face that could be recognized internationally was brought aboard. Rio, by the way, was also milking that we-never-had-the-Olympics-in-South-America argument for all its worth. Chicago had Michelle Obama using up family memories in her effort to sway the voters. And by the time Madrid was done, all stop signs were pulled: the Spaniards had Juan Antonio Samaranch, former IOC president and still its Honorary President for Life, delivering a below-the-waist, I’m-really-old-and-might-be-dead-soon-so-please-award-the-Games-to-my-country speech. Just touching.
When the action finally unfolded, it got even better. We had the early surprise, with Chicago being eliminated in the first round. We had Tokyo as the Cinderella story, briefly allowing itself to dream before getting kicked out as well. We had a 90-minute pause before the final result was announced, building up the tension even further and allowing room for a barrage of analysts trying to explain why Chicago had lost. And, as fate would have it, the two finalists were the two cities that were taking shots at one another during that last week. Hell, even the dude who announced the winner struggled a little to get that piece of paper out of the envelope. For entertainment value alone, it was just an awesome show.
When the guy finally managed to read aloud Rio de Janeiro, I was already standing up and screaming at the TV like an unbalanced person. To my surprise, I found myself pumping my fists and raising my arms in jubilation, as if Brazil had just beaten an Italian-Argentine combine to win two WC titles at once. I didn’t know I cared that much, so I tried to understand why I reacted the way I did.
Well, first of all, it was pretty cool to see the Brazilian delegation exploding and jumping off their seats when we won it, with everybody hugging each other, crying, really going nuts. It would be hard not to follow suit. And I just loved to see President Lula’s reaction in an on-site interview he gave minutes after the announcement. Now, I rarely agree with him and most of his impromptu speeches are borderline embarrassing, but right there he was a guy who embraced an idea and gave his all to bring the Olympics home. It was a project that dated back to, at least, 1997 finally paying off. That was genuine emotion, and those were real tears. It was that important, and I could relate to it.
Digging a little deeper, I remember when my childish enthusiasm for sports began to coexist with a deeper understanding and knowledge about them. I was no more than 12 or 13 years old and didn’t have the first clue as to where Antwerp or Lillehammer were on the globe, but I knew they had the Olympics there. And Antwerp hosted the Games back in 1920! That’s the real legacy of it all, as far as I can tell: it puts a city on the map in such a way that it never fades away. To have that kind of mark bestowed upon my hometown had always been a dream of mine, even if buried underneath other concerns, those of a kind more appropriate for a grown-up to carry around. But it was all surfacing now.
So I decided, when I finally calmed down, to go online and gauge the worldwide repercussion to Rio’s nomination. You know, to see if people in Northern Nepal were out celebrating in the streets as well. In the mainstream media, everything was just as expected. In the US, Chicago’s early exit was already being explained by half a dozen conspiracy theories, while in Europe papers focused on the Rio-Madrid showdown and the Spanish heartbreak. In Tokyo, people had gone to sleep about 40 minutes ago, so I wouldn’t say they were too upset with the result. And as for Brazil, reporters could barely translate their euphoria into words. Still, the one point everybody had in common was that the ‘first Olympics ever in South America’ card decided it for Rio, which is probably true. The Brazilians rode that argument all the way to the finish line and I’m afraid that if Buenos Aires had organized the Games back in, say, 1976, the result most likely would not have been the same.
Meanwhile, on the online discussion forums, I noticed two different types of naysayers. Both groups had been around all along, but when the result came out, so did them, with their guns blazing. The first one was against the Games because the final tab would be several times over the original budget (which, truth be told, is a safe bet) and that sort of money would be better spent on more pressing matters.
I personally think the long-term economic benefits of hosting the Games outweigh the immediate expenses, but then again I’d support the whole thing for bragging rights alone, regardless of any financial return, so for me the point is moot. In any case, Rio is a city in urgent need of a makeover. Deficient public transportation system, really bad traffic, urban violence; whatever big-city problem you name, Rio probably has it. And, in a way, the overhaul that the city so badly needs is only happening if events such as these are looming in the horizon. In other words: Rio only gets the couple of billion dollars of federal money to fix and expand its subway system if it hosts the Olympics and the World Cup Final. Mass transportation is a real problem that the city needs to address and yet, without that extra motivation, there will always be something more important to do first. So there you have it: I welcome that fire under the politicians’ seats.
However, it was the second opposition group that really baffled me. Those people are against the idea because they think Rio simply could not pull it off. I’ve grown accustomed to that sort of pessimistic thinking in Brazil, where a large chunk of the population suffers from an overwhelming inferiority complex that does not allow them to accept that anything good could ever happen here, so they would be better off not even trying. Sad, I know, but still that was old news. What I couldn’t believe was how far that mentality resonated abroad. People from all over the world were actually afraid, saying the games would not be safe and that whoever dares to come should bring extra cash to bribe the police and be ready to outrun potential muggers. One fool was even questioning how Rio would manage to afford it – I guess no one told him that Brazil was one of the top-10 economies in the world.
It’s true that Rio has serious problems with violence and corruption and I am the very first to acknowledge it. I even mentioned above how bad it is. But to suggest we can’t keep our shit together for 17 days is outrageous. It won’t be the first time the city hosts a major international event and not once security (or corruption, for that matter) was an issue. There’s no way the IOC would just roll the dice and recommend Rio’s project – as it did – if those nice gentlemen who inspected the city earlier in the process didn’t feel that way. Rest assured, those guys never gamble, not even to win the headlines with a feel-good underdog story. My main concern is how they will handle that hectic traffic, especially considering how the events were divided into 4 big zones in opposite corners of the city. If they work that out, I have little doubt that the Games will be a roaring success and Rio will turn even the most skeptical bystanders into fans. Just wait and see.
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