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Rio de Janeiro is already in a league of its own for pre-Olympics problems

 

The pre-Olympic narrative typically runs to tight deadlines, questions about infrastructure, slow ticket sales and much fretting and sweating.

Then there’s Rio 2016, which with 100 days out now practically demands its own '99 Problems' remix.

Olympic and Paralympic Games have in the past largely overcome the many concerns that precede them, delivering thrills, memories and a party (the post-Games hangover and day of reckoning is part of the cycle too), and each day brings a reminder – some pleasant, some not so much – that it’s all drawing closer.

On Wednesday, to mark the milestone day in the Games’ ancient Greece home, the Rio OC president was handed the Olympic torch.

Next Tuesday, it will touch down in Brasilia and begin winding its way to a host city which at this point is in ready-or-not mode, 6 1/2 years removed from when it was awarded these first South American Olympics.

That was in the middle of a commodities-driven boom time, Brazil bouncing back from the global economic meltdown to hit eight per cent growth in 2010. Now two years into deep recession, it's all gone wrong, with the president facing impeachment over budget-fiddling allegations, and an ongoing corruption scandal that has brought locals out into the streets to demonstrate.

Part of Rio’s pitch seven years ago involved a cleanup of Guanabara Bay for water-based events such as sailing, canoe and kayak, rowing and marathon swimming. But budget cuts have turned the focus from eliminating the bay’s alarming levels of pollution to merely taking precautions to deal with its notoriously filthy water - "a lost opportunity," Sports Minister Ricardo Leyser told AFP.

Meanwhile, Brazil has since become ground zero for the Zika virus, a global health emergency that's spawned a number of preventive measures at Rio's venues, and now NOCs are responding with insect-repellent sponsors and clothing.

The Brazilian, Olympic and Greek flags fly over the Panathenaic Stadium during the handover ceremony of the Olympic Flame to the delegation of the 2016 Rio Olympics, in Athens, Greece, April 27, 2016. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis
The Brazilian, Olympic and Greek flags fly over the Panathenaic Stadium during the handover ceremony of the Olympic Flame to the delegation of the 2016 Rio Olympics, in Athens, Greece, April 27, 2016. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

The IOC and athletes travel along insulated from much of this kind of turbulence, and with the venues “98 per cent complete” and team selections underway, that part is business as usual. But to go along with pollution and health concerns over Zika, there have been local police budget cuts, a new subway line connecting Barra's Olympic Park is still being finished, and ominously, last week’s washing away of parts of a legacy seaside bike path, with two people dead and another missing, that have added to the list.

Amid that gloom, there is always the competition, and as ever, the futbol, to look forward to. Brazil is mad for it, and even though it'll likely take a generation to heal the scars from their devastating World Cup exit two years ago, the Olympic soccer tournament is expected to draw intense interest and buoy ticket sales that stood at 60 per cent sold overall last week. And this much always seems true: once the Games are on, and athletes like Usain Bolt, Serena Williams and the like start doing their thing, people show up.

That's a ray of sunshine, along with the generally-held notion confirmed by its annual Carnival that few handle a party better than Cariocas. And the Christ the Redeemer statue looks great on TV. They may have 99 problems, but the view ain’t one.