The politics of the olympics

What we are experiencing here in Brazil is a mixture of the ongoing crises: a population that is happy with the Olympic dreams, but at the same time angry because of the millions of dollars spent on it in spite of the hard time that the country is facing; happy with the new sports facilities, but angry at the organization that had to evict many people from their homes; happy with the opening ceremony, but angry when they are censored and taken out of the sports facilities for protesting against the interim President; happy with the performances of some of their athletes, but angry at others from whom they expected more, e.g. Neymar; and above all, a deeply divided society amidst the ongoing impeachment process.

It is difficult to know what news to follow during the Olympic Games at Rio de Janeiro 2016, when at the same time the impeachment process of President Dilma Rousseff is in its final stages. While athletes compete for gold medals and a place in the podium, “Lava Jato” investigations continue to find new implicated politicians and civilians in this scandal. And while the first gold medal winner for Brazil in these games, Rafaela Silva, openly supported Rousseff after thanking her for the subsidies she has received and that made possible for her to win gold, the Brazilian senate is voting to impeach Rousseff based on budgetary mismanagements. This Wednesday, 10 August, 2016, early morning, the Brazilian senate voted 59 to 21 in order to approve the continuity of the impeachment process, whose last stage is to come during the last week of August, right after the Olympic Games are over. Meanwhile, some of the assistants of the event have been censored and thrown out of the sports facilities for protesting against the interim President, Michel Temer.

As athletes inspire us to fight for our dreams, such as the Refugee Olympic Team or Majlinda Kelmendi from Kosovo, who won the first gold medal ever for her country after turning down millionaire contracts for representing other countries, we also have to ask the question: was Brazil ready to host such a big event only two years after hosting the FIFA World Cup?

It probably was, when it was awarded the hosting of both events, but much has changed since then. There has been considerable criticism on this. But the issue goes further than the quality of the water or Rio’s beaches, the delayed infrastructural preparations or the astonishing opening ceremony in the glorious Maracana Stadium. It has to do more with the fact that Brazil is in both financial and political crisis, and that the billions of dollars spent in the event could easily have gone to education or health, according to a good part of the population. At the same time, it has been empirically proven that events such as the Olympic Games or the World Cup help the host cities to grow economically. In this sense, Rio de Janeiro is expected to make up for the costs of this event. For example, when competing for being host of the Olympics, the Brazilian Ministry of Sports estimated that the competition would get to move up to $US 51, and that 120 thousand jobs would be created.

There are critics who argue, however, that this is not all profit, and that the event is more similar to a zero sum game. Nevertheless, cities usually compete to become the center of such events because it helps them attract more investment from their governments and from abroad, as a way of modernization and economic development. This is the first time in history that the Olympic Games are hosted in Brazil, and in South America. As the competition was closer to its inauguration in Rio de Janeiro, for example, a new tramway system was built and put into operation. Even though it was argued by the major of the city, Eduardo Paes, that the system was not built only because of the Olympic Games, it certainly was designed to facilitate the traffic between the Center of the city, the local airport and the coast line. Furthermore, an additional subway linewas built in Ipanema, one of the most iconic beaches of Rio. Talking about sports related infrastructure, the Ministry of Sports declared to have built 12 training centers, 261 sports initiation centers, 46 official athleticstracks, 10 Olympic facilities and training equipment.

We cannot deny that all this investment could have gone directly to the least fortunate, but we also have to admit that athletes without the rich sponsors could also make use of these sports facilities that will remain in the city, like the above mentioned Rafaela Silva, who is a black underprivileged woman from the favelas of Rio, who would have never reached her dream of becoming a world champion without these kind of investments and subsidies from the government. Another example is the silver medal winner, Felipe Wu, who is also part of the government system of subsidies for athletes. Both athletes are the only medal winners for Brazil so far at these Olympic Games.

All in all, what we are experiencing here in Brazil is a mixture of all the above: a population that is happy with the Olympic dreams, but at the same time angry because of the millions of dollars spent on it, especially in this difficult moment that the country is facing; happy with the new sports facilities, but angry at the organization that had to evict many people from their homes; happy with the opening ceremony, but angry when they are censored and taken out of the sports facilities for protesting against the interim President; happy with the performances of some of their athletes, but angry at others from whom they expected more, e.g. Neymar; and above all, a deeply divided society amidst the ongoing impeachment process.

Dott.ssa Ana Figueroa