Rio 2016 Olympics

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First time (ever, I think) I've been less than excited for an Olympics, unfortunately.
 
I want to watch just to see if the dire warnings about the state of Rio come to fruition.

But knowing NBC, they'll just filter out all the bad stuff and air 18 more sob stories about athletes anyway.
 
I can't be more excited. I won't let all the bs bring me down.

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I'm excited. I need something to get through to football season.

Rio has arguably the most beautiful natural setting of any city in the world
 
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As a Brazilian, I feel both (i) annoyed that the preparations didn't go so well; (ii) that it cost an enormous amount of money in a time where the city/state/country is in a bad economic crisis; and (iii) at the overreaction/selfishness of people elsewhere that the games may not be perfect.

Look, if you really want the Olympics to be more than a "rich boys' club", you have to accept the fact that it may at times take place in locations where infrastructure is not great. And as much as I understand the frustration of some of the athletes/delegations that the Olympic village has problems, some of the complaints go a bit overboard. I was home for the World Cup a couple of years ago - a much larger event, I believe - and guess what, it was a great experience. Yes, there were hiccups and problems with facilities/infrastructure, but me and my (non-Brazilian) friends all had the time of our life.

Rio has arguably the most beautiful natural setting for a city in the world

Yup. I hope when the games start, people will start to appreciate the good things.


cidade-maravilhosa-1.jpg
 
I'm really ticked off at the way people have behaved as well, all of these athletes not attending. This is supposed to be a nice unifying fun thing. And yeah , ideally it helps the economy of countries that couldn't just easily host this, like the US.

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I don't blame anyone, really, but the likelihood that you get Zika in Rio in August is really, really low. Sure, it's possible. You are much more likely to get mugged/killed in a traffic accident/shot.

I need to check the data, but you may be more likely to get Zika in Miami in August.
 
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This is supposed to be a nice unifying fun thing. And yeah , ideally it helps the economy of countries that couldn't just easily host this, like the US.

I don't mean to be a dick here, but it doesn't help the economy to host the Olympics. Quite the opposite, actually. The temporary bump in tourism does not off-set the mammoth upfront costs, not to mention the interest a country like Brazil will have to swallow on a bunch of loans and the long-term losses involved with prioritizing one-off sporting arenas instead of badly needed infrastructure elsewhere.
 
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Yeah. The Olympics (as any other major event like this) are an unmitigated disaster economically. I think host cities are starting to finally realize this, and you don't get the same level of competition for hosting these events as you did in the past.
 
Well...not always. Salt Lake City's 2002 Olympics were very profitable. Made about $100 M in profit, of which 72 M was set aside as an endowment to maintain facilities which continues today.

Its also estimated that the 2002 Olympics added $1.25 Billion in direct economic impact to Utah and 35,000 job years of employment.

https://www.ksl.com/?sid=19155597

I realize summer and winter is not a fair comparison....not to mention we already had most of the facilities in place to host most of the events.

I hope the Rio Olympics go smoothly. I remember the community pride here to try and put on a successful Olympics for the world and I'm sure Brazilians feel the same way
 
pretty sure vancouver at least broke even too. not sure if it's doable with a summer games.

i remember the month or so before sochi how the sky was falling in the media over the preparations. as soon as the games actually started, who was thinking about how much the new freeway cost?
 
I kind of feel like the Olympics have less and less relevance in the grand scheme of sport, but I hope that once they kick off I'll get swept up in it like I always have.

And well said Gump. Must be a bit crushing as a Brazilian to hear people from the world over thinking they're all experts.
 
Well...not always. Salt Lake City's 2002 Olympics were very profitable. Made about $100 M in profit, of which 72 M was set aside as an endowment to maintain facilities which continues today.

As Mitt Romney reminded us so many times in his presidential run.

The clincher really is whether you have pre-existing facilities that have a viable future after the games. But then even in 2012 London the games were a net loss. The best example of Olympics going awry is Greece in the early 2000s: borrowed enormous amounts of money and imported enormous amounts of materials, only to allow the stadiums promptly to fall into disrepair.

This is a good concise article on the economic dilemma:
Just say no | The Economist
 
I did say ideally.

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I agree with your broader point, though: these events are super costly and often lead to deficits, but if people are boycotting/skipping for a variety of artificial reasons (or, more accurately perhaps, legitimate reasons that get overplayed into generating fear and anxiety), then you are really screwed. Even the small benefits of tourist influx will be below expectations.

Anyways:

Women's soccer starts next Wednesday. Men's soccer on Thursday. The Olympics are the only soccer tournament that Brazil has never won (they came close in 2012, losing to Mexico in the final), so they brought some heavyweights to play, including Neymar. Should be fun.

I'm really curious about the opening ceremony.
 
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Why though? What is there to truly be afraid of? From what I can understand, the only thing out of the norm scary of Zika from any other virus / cold we're used to is the name...
If I were a female athlete who wanted to become pregnant, and/or a male athlete who was planning on having kids in the next 2-3 years, it would absolutely make a difference as to whether or not I participated.
 
Hey, gump. Point well taken. Many apologies for my "bring on the shitshow" post of schadenfreude. I do hope they go well for all involved. :)

That being said, I will be out there in the streets fighting against the mere idea if Seattle ever gets on the roster to host the games.
 
Hey, gump. Point well taken. Many apologies for my "bring on the shitshow" post of schadenfreude. I do hope they go well for all involved. :)

That being said, I will be out there in the streets fighting against the mere idea if Seattle ever gets on the roster to host the games.

Oh don't worry about it, I don't take these things personally at all! My complaint is really about journalists/athletes that are out there but try to paint a picture that is quite one-sided. I like a good, self-deprecating laugh about the mess from time to time (trust me, we Brazilians will laugh/complain/yell at the mess more than anyone else).

If New York was to try and host the games, I'd be joining the march against it too.
 
As Mitt Romney reminded us so many times in his presidential run.

The clincher really is whether you have pre-existing facilities that have a viable future after the games. But then even in 2012 London the games were a net loss. The best example of Olympics going awry is Greece in the early 2000s: borrowed enormous amounts of money and imported enormous amounts of materials, only to allow the stadiums promptly to fall into disrepair.

This is a good concise article on the economic dilemma:
Just say no | The Economist


while i love the idea of different cities across the globe hosting, and it's a lovely 2-week postcard (remember the high diving in Barcelona? fucking gorgeous backdrop) for a city that might benefit from tourism, i wonder if a solution might be to have, say, 4-5 cities that rotate hosting the Games every four years. cities that have done it before and have the money and infrastructure to absorb all those people and provide athletes with optimal settings to perform. like ... L.A., Sydney, London, Tokyo, maybe even Beijing?

i love the Olympics, always will. i have faith that Brazil will pull it off, but it does seem like an awfully big ask of people who really may have bigger things to worry about (like open gang warfare and police departments without any toilet paper).

lastly, i get that NBC pays a fuckton of money, but it would be nice if they wouldn't dick over the athletes for ratings. they want the US to march later in the opening ceremonies because the US begins with an "E" in Brazilian Portuguese, and they moved the swimming finals to a 10pm start date because Michael Phelps = ratings. it's an unholy hour to have finals, arguably more of an athlete fuck up than Beijing's morning finals.

also, i'm fine with the Russia ban. fuck Putin.
 
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also, i'm fine with the Russia ban. fuck Putin.

I'm fine with the idea of banning a participating nation as a result of doping, the thing I absolutely don't have confidence in is that these same standards would be applied to say, hypothetically, a major western nation. It's too easy to do this to Russia given their standing among the west.
 
I'm fine with the idea of banning a participating nation as a result of doping, the thing I absolutely don't have confidence in is that these same standards would be applied to say, hypothetically, a major western nation. It's too easy to do this to Russia given their standing among the west.



The critical difference is the evidence we have of tampering with tests at the state level. All countries have cheaters.
 
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