THE 2016
SUMMER GAMES THE RIO OLYMPICS;
The 2016
Summer Olympics (Portuguese: Jogos Olímpicos de Verão
de 2016), officially
known as the Games of the XXXI Olympiad,
and commonly known as Rio 2016,
is a major international multi-sport event in the tradition of the Olympic Games due to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from August 5 to August 21, 2016.
Record numbers of countries are participating in a record number of sports.
More than 10,500 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees
(NOCs), including first time entrants Kosovo and South Sudan, will take part. With 306 sets
of medals, the games will feature 28 Olympic sports — including rugby sevens and golf, which were added by the International Olympic Committee
in 2009. These sporting events will take place at 33 venues in the host city
and at 5 venues in the cities of São Paulo (Brazil's largest city), Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Brasília (Brazil's capital), and Manaus.
These will be the first Summer Olympic Games under the
IOC presidency of Thomas Bach. The host city of Rio de Janeiro was announced at the 121st IOC Session held in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 2
October 2009. Rio will become the first South American city to host the Summer
Olympics, the second city in Latin America to host the event after Mexico City in 1968, and the first since 2000 to be held in the Southern Hemisphere.
On Thursday, 21 April 2016 the Olympic Flame was lit at a
ceremony in Ancient Olympia. The Rio 2016 Olympic Torch Relay will visit 329
towns and cities in Brazil. The Flame will travel over 20,000 ...
CONCERNS AND CONTROVERSIES
Water pollution
The beaches in Rio de Janeiro have been a major health hazard that has been
present and can pose a major threat among athletes. Progress has been very
lackluster from the lack of cleanup with trash strewn across the beaches in
Rio, while officials have promised to make the water safe. During an Olympic
test event in August 2015 a German sailor was infected by multi-resistant
germs, which may have been caused by waste water from the city's hospitals and
sewer system running into the sea near the Olympic venues.
Marina da Glória, local of
sailing competitions
Zika virus
An outbreak of the Zika virus occurred in Brazil in January 2016. It was
announced that there would be daily inspections of Olympic venues to prevent
puddles of stagnant water that allow mosquitoes to breed.
Political instability and economic crisis
The political instability currently facing
Brazil may jeopardize the 2016 Olympics:
In 2014, Operation Car Wash, an
investigation by the Federal Police of Brazil, uncovered money laundering and
corruption at an unprecedented scale at the state-controlled oil company Petrobras, where it was alleged that executives accepted
bribes in return for awarding contracts to construction firms at inflated
prices. In early 2015, a series of protests began in Brazil against corruption
and to denounce the government of President Dilma Rousseff, triggered by revelations that numerous
politicians were involved in the Petrobras affair. By early 2016 the scandal
had escalated into a full blown political crisis involving not only President
Roussef, but also former president Lula da Silva, resulting
in massive demonstrations all over the country involving millions of protesters.
At the same time (late 2015, early 2016) Brazil faced its worst economic
recession since the 1990s. In March 2016, CNN informed that "Brazil
descends into chaos as Olympics looms", voicing rising concerns over
whether Brazil would be adequately prepared for the games against such a
volatile political and economic backdrop. Allegedly the International Olympic
Committee is "very closely" watching the political events unfolding.
On top of that the operating budget for the games was slashed by $500 million
to $1.85 billion in January 2016.
Political instability affects Brazil's
initial climate of enthousiasm for the Olympics
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Despite all the concerns and controversy, the
Rio Olympic Games will still take place and would be seen as the greatest games
on earth to be stage successfully.
