The Olympic Games present something of a paradox for the hosts. For a few weeks, it brings in massive tourism and money is spent to improve infrastructure. But it also leaves a city with white elephant stadiums on which billions of dollars have been spent. And it brings about the authoritarian side of rulers, who shunt the homeless into jails and otherwise try to pretend there is no social blight in their country. The ongoing Games in Rio de Janeiro have all those problems and more. Some of the issues ended up being overblown, as they were in London, Beijing and Athens before it. The stadiums have been splendid and security not proven an issue so far. The Zika virus, which has hit Brazil particularly hard, will always linger in the back of the athletes’ minds but Brazil has been given a clean bill by the World Health Organisation. The opening ceremony was less mind-numbing than such events tend to be. Rio chose a minimalist approach and even found time to highlight important issues like the connectivity of humankind and the issue of climate change. The doping issue, particularly with the inclusion of Russia for its systemic performance enhancing drugs programme, lingers and threatens to tarnish the feats of the world’s best athletes. A more parochial concern is Pakistan’s continued inability to produce anyone capable of performing on the Olympic stage. After our failure to qualify for the hockey tournament, the only representation we have are those given wildcards by the International Olympic Committee.
What Brazil is finding harder to do is separate the Olympics from the political turmoil gripping the country. As much as we like to believe that the Olympics are an apolitical celebration of amateur sporting excellence, this has always been an intensely political event. From Hitler’s snub of Jesse Owens to the Munich massacre of Israeli athletes in 1972 and the respective US and Russian boycotts in 1980 and 1984, the Olympics cannot help but reflect the world around it. The Rio Olympics were meant to be a coming out party for Brazil as an emerging power under the leadership of President Lula. In April, however, his successor Dilma Rouseff was suspended by a right-wing cabal in a virtual coup over accusations of corruption in her government. They are now using the Olympics as a way to project their rule. It is up to the sportsperson not to let them overshadow the Games and use it as a propaganda tool. The Olympics should belong to them – and the rest of us – and not a ruling faction.