The 2016 Rio Olympics are fully underway (Go USA!). The 2016 Olympics was supposed to be Rio De Janeiro and Brazil's moment in the sun. But, Rio's moment to shine may never come - as the Rio Olympics have been utter chaos.
Everything from the filthy water, health safety, political issues, money issues, athletes skipping the Olympics, to downright our own NBC coverage of the games being simply a disaster.
Seems to be, more like "Welcome to the 2016 "Rio-hazard" Olympics."
Opening Ceremony
I can't be too hasty it wasn't the worst, but it certainly was not the best. The ceremony did not live up to the standards of capturing Brazil or Rio de Janeiro at all. At best it captured the state of the economic recession the country is in, its budget was roughly 20 million dollars - that is less than half of what the 2012 London Olympics open ceremony cost.
Apparently, viewers from around the world received the memo the opening ceremony would be mediocre. The Rio Olympic ceremony had the lowest tv ratings since 1992 and one of the lowest amount of viewers with 27 million watching compared to London's 40.7 million watching in the U.S. I believe Brazil was only aiming for a participation award with this ceremony.
"Rio-hazard" Environment
The Rio Olympics slogan should be "Come for the Olympics, stay for the hospitals." No, seriously, sewage and industrial waste from the city are basically dumped in the water that surrounds Rio de Janeiro - the same water Olympic athletes will be competing in! The water is so filthy that just consuming roughly three tablespoons and you're guaranteed to catch some sort of nasty virus.
To add insult to injury, prior to the Olympics starting, human body parts were found in the Olympic beach volleyball venue. More recently a body was found in the sailing and windsurfing venue. If athletes weren't already worried about getting mugged or finding a dead body, now they have to worry about potentially coming back home with something, and I am not talking about a medal.
Zika Virus
If you weren't worried about finding a body, getting mugged/kidnapped or potentially ingesting some deadly water - contracting the Zika virus might be what you take instead of a medal. The Zika virus outbreak was first recorded in you guessed it, Brazil; what makes the disease deadlier among the Olympics is the warm climate, which is suitable weather for mosquitoes. It also doesn't help that there are millions of people around the city and thousands at these Olympic venues, perfect way for the virus to spread rapidly.
The disease did not go unnoticed by the athletes/coaches as numerous have either skipped the Olympics completely or froze their sperm prior to the games. Again "Come for the Olympics, stay for the hospitals." But, hell, at this point, just run. You are better off just fleeing the country.
Economic Turmoil
Amidst the Rio Olympic games is a country in the middle of a huge economic recession. You wouldn't know that by the billions of dollars Brazil has spent on the Olympics, in hopes of bringing them out of the recession; I hate to be the bearer of bad news, it won't. Not only is there economic turmoil, but there is a health care crisis ongoing too, as there is no funding for hospitals and clinics.
The major source of revenue for Brazil comes from the oil that they sell; but with the oil selling at a low price, there is no decent amount of revenue coming in to the country. Brazil is simply spending money it does not have; while its spending billions on the Olympics, a big chunk of the city is in the slums/poverty and being turned away from hospitals because lack of funding. Just imagine how the billions spent could have gone to better use, the people of Rio, the city itself, and Brazil are really the only true losers of the Olympics.
NBC Sucks
Commercials galore! The coverage of the Olympics has been basically a corporate sponsorship show.
Example, the opening ceremony was supposed to be only THREE hours long. Three hours in and they weren't even done with half the nations in the Olympic opening parade. The whole thing has been filled with a substantial amount of pointless commercials. That's not even the worst part, NBC cut off the parade to head to commercials and has cut off events for advertisements as well.
The NBC should now stand for "Nothing But Commercials" because at this rate they're going for gold in the number of commercials in one broadcast. Another thing to add is, by the time they air the broadcast all of America knows the winner already. We would like our events live, please!
Lastly, to Matt Laurer and his co-workers, if you could have just shut up with your "expert" (more like clueless) commentary, the opening ceremony would have been more enjoyable to watch.
Conclusion
With everything going wrong in the Olympics, I guess the only optimism you can find is that the U.S is doing amazing in the games, shout out to Michael "The Goat" Phelps, Katie Ledecky (The whole swim team actually), the whole women gymnast team, and the basketball team. It's hard to be compassionate and find positives for a city who spend's billions creating facilities that will soon be empty, while its own people are starving and living in poverty without any health care.
The people of the country, the safety of both athletes and people should all be put first; you can't just sweep the problems under the rug and hope everyone comes off the Olympic high with amnesia about the hurdles the country faces, it's ludicrous.
The self-interests that Rio de Janeiro and Brazil have displayed are why these Olympics are headed for last place. Maybe the next one will be better.
