Rio’s sports seen from above

When Dilma Rousseff lit up the Olympic torch in Brasilia, she said “This will be the most beautiful Olympic Games the world  will ever see”. But would they be really?

The current political turmoil, the transportation’s inefficiency, the pollution of the waters and the lack of infrastructures, all tend to prove Dilma wrong.

This is the tale of a city that is getting ready to host the first Olympic Games in South America and just maybe it’s not ready for it!

At 6am, the Carioca are running not to go to work but along the famous beaches of Rio or along the Lagoon. They’re running to practice sports. Any kind of sports: from beach volley to cycling, passing trough rowing, football, windsurf and many more.

Then they do go to work and they usually start wondering whether inflation will go up again, if the next time they will buy groceries the bill will be even more expensive and, they also wonder who, on August 5th, will formally represent the country at the Maracanà Stadium for the opening ceremony.

However it seems that the olympic fever hasn’t hit the city yet.

Rio de Janeiro is on the verge of declaring bankruptcy, Brazil is facing the worst economic recession since the 30’s and many Brazilians, who were cheering in the streets back in October 2009, when Rio won the bid for the Olympic and Brazil was perceived as the next economic “super power”, are now convinced that the government should have invested in schools and hospitals instead of Olympic stadiums and new cycle paths.