8 Reasons Why Rio May Have Been a Bad Choice For the Olympics

n0e

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Feb 28, 2014
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8 Reasons Why Rio May Have Been a Bad Choice For the Olympics

Corruption, Pollution everywhere, huge negative impact on its economy are all signs that Rio shouldn't have been selected as the spot for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

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LegoDudeGuy

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Jun 9, 2010
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Sadly, to my knowledge, the host cites are decided by who has the biggest sack of cash to bribe the IOC as opposed to more resonable parameters like viability and economic sustainability.

Here's hoping that this causes some sort of reform for picking host cities in the future, because for a event of this scale to already be blundering so hard BEFORE IT HAS EVEN STARTED has got to cause something to change.

Sochi in 2014 was the first sign, this is the 2nd, let's not make a third and permanently tarnish the reputation of a event going back hundreds of years, if it haven't already.

Vancouver was amazing (Mostly because I live there), and London was top notch, since then it's all gone down hill.
 

Ironman126

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Apr 7, 2010
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LegoDudeGuy said:
Sadly, to my knowledge, the host cites are decided by who has the biggest sack of cash to bribe the IOC as opposed to more resonable parameters like viability and economic sustainability.
That is the correct method of selection. Humans respond to incentives, especially when those incentives are a couple million US dollars worth of currency. The IOC, FIFA, and the like all operate the same way.

Here's hoping that this causes some sort of reform for picking host cities in the future, because for a event of this scale to already be blundering so hard BEFORE IT HAS EVEN STARTED has got to cause something to change.

Sochi in 2014 was the first sign, this is the 2nd, let's not make a third and permanently tarnish the reputation of a event going back hundreds of years, if it haven't already.

Vancouver was amazing (Mostly because I live there), and London was top notch, since then it's all gone down hill.
Compared to Rio, Sochi was a fucking paradise.

Personally, I think that the Olympics should be held in the same place every time. Maybe Athens for the summer (the Greeks could use the tourism) and, I don't know, Zurich or Salt Lake City for the winter. It would save everyone the trouble of building new facilities that will be used exactly once.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

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Jul 15, 2013
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They should, and you should try the Phillippines this time of...erm...decade. It will be character building at least.
 

cikame

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The London Olympics worked because we could build and operate it without too much drama, our economy allowed us to support it without any trouble, and the new infrastructure we put in place would benefit people in London after the event. Athletes villages and other buildings were turned into housing for thousands of people, new train and subway routes, better roads and apparently the venues themselves are still being used as sports facilities.
I myself wouldn't want to live in London :p, but it sounds like it benefited the city, i haven't heard anything bad about it, this Rio Olympics sounds like a bad idea for everyone involved except the people with money, money which should be spent fixing Rio's issues.
 

008Zulu_v1legacy

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I wonder if their cops (I won't put corrupt in front of that, they all seem to be), will storm the fields and snatch people away mid-event.
 

flying_whimsy

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well, to be fair, those may have been crooks posing as cops. It's not uncommon amongst tourist destinations that may be lacking in law-enforcement resources.

Aside from that, the Rio event is a damned disgrace. Everyone involved should apologize and resign, both in the city of and on the IOC. That the athletes have to choose between getting sick and possibly robbed or not participating is insulting. None of the problems are a surprise to anyone.

I'm sort of hoping things go from bad to worse, mainly because I hope the ensuing outrage is enough to bring all of the corruption to the center of the discussion and motivate some change.

And since I'm wishing for the impossible, I'd like a pony and a rocketship.
 

Bob_McMillan

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Xsjadoblayde said:
They should, and you should try the Phillippines this time of...erm...decade. It will be character building at least.
Oooh, that would be fun. I would love to throw up on some Olympic athletes and steal their shit.
 

Morti

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LegoDudeGuy said:
Sochi in 2014 was the first sign, this is the 2nd, let's not make a third and permanently tarnish the reputation of a event going back hundreds of years, if it haven't already.
Nit-picking time!

Whilst the Modern Olympics was certainly inspired by the Ancient Olympics, there was a 1600 year gap between the two. The Modern Olympics has only existed since 1894.
 

Cowabungaa

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Not sure why this has the tag "video games" under it because it has, y'know, nothing to do with videogames. Kind of a stretch for this thing anyway, not sure why it belongs on the Escapist.

That said, yes Rio was a terrible idea for the Olympics. The entire Olympics in its current form is a bad idea.
 

RJ 17

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My favorite part about all this is how blatantly obvious the IOC was about saying "Look, they paid us a shit-ton of money, so we're obligated to let them host it." MONTHS before the Olympics, the horror stories were already pouring in, each one more disturbing than the last...each one saying "Well surely they'll move them somewhere else now, right?" Nope.

Stories of the police being the among the most corrupt in the world? Nah, we'll keep it there.
Zika virus running rampant? Nah, we'll keep it there.
Olympic Village housing left unfinished? Nah, we'll keep it there.
Raw sewage in the water? Nah, we'll keep it there.
Armed robbery a common occurrence? Nah, we'll keep it there.
 

Bobular

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I didn't think we'd have problems with tentacles at the Olympics till it went to Tokyo. The rest of the stuff seems to be expected, there were already athletes that said they weren't going due to the location and I'll be interested to see if more start leaving after the first day of being there.

This seems to be the problem with the Olympics these days, if it goes to a poorer nation then the money is eaten by corruption and the poorest don't benefit, the money that they got from hosting the games should have gone to solving these kinds of problems so that the athletes were fine during the games and the locals continue to benefit after.
 

KissingSunlight

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Jul 3, 2013
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After watching an investigative report about how corrupt the IOC is and the atrocities that occurred before and after the games in Beijing and Sochi, I am convinced we need to stop having The Olympics. Who really cares about The Olympics in those off years? While it's nice for athletes in non-major sports to have a high profile event to compete in. They are not adequately compensated for the effort they put into the competition. I feel the whole thing is a sham. The only reason we care about The Olympics is for nationalism. b

EDIT: I noticed a lot of atrocious grammatical errors in my post. So, I corrected them. I really don't know why I made so many errors. I guess it wasn't paying attention.
 

Zetatrain

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KissingSunlight said:
After watching an investigative report about how corrupt the IOC is and the atrocities that occurred before and after the games in Beijing and Sochi, I am convinced when need to stop having The Olympics.
As others have mentioned, a solution would be to have designated areas for the Olympics preferably places that already have the facilities. This way the country's economy doesn't get turned upside to make way for the Olympics every time they come around and the facilities get used more than just once.
KissingSunlight said:
The only reason we care about The Olympics is for nationalism.
Well speaking for myself, I care about the Olympics because I like sports. Sure nationalistic pride plays a factor, and I'll be more invested if my team has a chance at winning, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying events where they are ether absent from or have no chance of winning.
 

Addendum_Forthcoming

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Feb 4, 2009
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RJ 17 said:
Stories of the police being the among the most corrupt in the world? Nah, we'll keep it there.
Zika virus running rampant? Nah, we'll keep it there.
Olympic Village housing left unfinished? Nah, we'll keep it there.
Raw sewage in the water? Nah, we'll keep it there.
Armed robbery a common occurrence? Nah, we'll keep it there.
Body parts found in the beach where they intended to hold the beach volleyball?

I feel this Olympics is merely a clever set up for this...


It has all the visual elements ... rich, white tourists end up getting killed in mysterious ways in a highly public spectacle.... body uncovered by innocuous circumstances like after a false fire alarm at the Australian Olympic Village....

It just works.

In all honesty, I don't give a fuck what happens to useless people given money to do useless things. Nobody should care. Ever. If this was marketed as if; "Hi! We're building ridiculous temples to excess to give ourselves massive cheques and provide a government endorsed industry of useless people being useless, want to help or donate?" I feel like the civilized response should involve some form of punitive countermeasure.

With all the problems this olympics has had with organized crime, I feel it's less bad things happening ... and more like organized criminals are trying to show who's boss to the new gang coming into town.
 

Jute88

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Holy hell it's worse than I thought! Let us hope the japanese make a better job in 2020.
 

Catnip1024

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Well, given what happened to the World Cup stadiums afterwards, the aftermath will be just as interesting.

I did like the IOC approach to the Zika virus though: "The show must go on. People running around and jumping over things is far too important to cancel just to halt the spread of a life-changing virus growing to pandemic proportions!"
LegoDudeGuy said:
Here's hoping that this causes some sort of reform for picking host cities in the future, because for a event of this scale to already be blundering so hard BEFORE IT HAS EVEN STARTED has got to cause something to change.

Sochi in 2014 was the first sign, this is the 2nd, let's not make a third and permanently tarnish the reputation of a event going back hundreds of years, if it haven't already.
At least they've not gone full FIFA yet and decided to host it in the middle of the hottest, least hospitable part of the world, in a country which oppresses women and bans alcohol, in 50C heat, in stadiums build with slave labour...
 

008Zulu_v1legacy

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Catnip1024 said:
At least they've not gone full FIFA yet and decided to host it in the middle of the hottest, least hospitable part of the world, in a country which oppresses women and bans alcohol, in 50C heat, in stadiums build with slave labour...
I think we can all breath a sigh of relief that it wasn't built upon a mass grave, right? (I really hope this isn't the actual case. I'm almost too scarred to go looking)

OT; The opening ceremony wasn't too bad. The treejaculation was a little... weird.

I am still waiting to see how many of the events are going to be held on incomplete tracks.