The Olympics are almost upon us. One of the biggest sporting events in the world is less than two weeks away. I say it’s one of the biggest sporting events in the world based on the world's view of it. I on the other hand couldn’t care less about the Olympics. As much as I love sports, I have never been able to give even a small ounce of attention to the Olympic games. I think it’s because the games only happen once every four years. There is nothing to follow, nor are there any names I recognize other than some players on the basketball team. However, this year’s games have me interested, but not in a good way. I still won’t be watching, but I will be following up with it over all of the concerns and potential problems in Rio.
The top concern, of course, being the Zika virus that everyone is talking about, but believe it or not, Zika isn’t even the real top concern. From what I have read, since Brazil is in the southern hemisphere, it's currently their winter season, meaning a much lesser chance of mosquitoes transferring the Zika virus. The real troubling concern is the water in Rio.
Despite the fact that the Olympic committee gave them an all good, I am still very concerned. There is basically raw sewage spilling into the waters where some athletes will be competing. To top it off a “drug resistant super bug” has been found in these polluted waters before. There are many other smaller problems that surround the Olympics as well. Security is not exactly top notch over there. An Olympic athlete has already been mugged. I’ll be honest, the Olympics this year are in a bad place to start. The biggest thing that surprises me is that more countries haven’t pulled out of the games.
There have been much smaller problems that caused sports franchises to make necessary decisions. Just the other day the NBA commissioner pulled the all-star game from Charlotte because of a controversial bill that was passed. Even two years ago, the Minnesota Vikings had planned to reinstate running back Adrian Peterson after he was convicted of beating his child. However, after various companies threatened to pull their sponsorships, the Vikings quickly changed their mind.
These are both big issues in the world and it makes sense that necessary decisions had to be made. So why is it that something on such a bigger scale like the Olympics, with even potentially worse consequences, is still going on as planned? I understand that at this point it is a little late to change things, but in my opinion if a country wants to host a world sporting event like this, it should have its act cleaned up well in advance and not promise that it will be ready by game time -- that is just ridiculous. Even though there is no proof of any shady things going on, I wouldn’t be surprised if some pockets were being lined with cash in exchange for approval, kind of like the FIFA committee.
