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Brazil's Olympic Games: Reason to Celebrate Among Concerns on Zika Virus and Political Instability

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For the first time in history, the Olympic Games will be held in South America. Despite the excitement for this summer’s events, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been forced to address pressing issues creeping up in the Rio de Janeiro area. These issues concern the rapid spreading of the Zika virus, political instability, and citizen displacement in the midst of venue construction.

The first modern Olympic Games were held in Greece in 1896, welcoming around 280 athletes from 13 nations. It has since grown drastically to include over 200 countries and 11,000 athletes. The IOC was created in 1894 and, as the governing supranational organization of the Olympic Games, it is comprised of members from various countries. It is responsible for promoting participation and choosing the city where the event will be held (Walker, 2014). Thus far, the IOC has been successful in completing the goals of uniting countries from across the world, as this year marks the 120th annual Olympic Games.

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In spite of the general success and perpetuation of the IOC, it has introduced a plethora of issues for various countries. While hosting an Olympic Games guarantees immediate increases in revenue through tourism and an improvement in infrastructure, there is also a hefty economic toll in the long run. First of all, the IOC has started collecting over 70% of total revenue during the course of a single Olympic Games, compared to the mere 4% annually between 1960 and 1980 (Zimbalist, 2015). Although this has a smaller effect on wealthier countries, such as those in Europe or the United States, it is non-beneficial for countries that are not as economically stable, such as Brazil. Furthermore, hosting the Olympic Games requires a large amount of suitable infrastructure where which to hold the particular competitions. For cities such as London, this was not an issue as they already possessed many venues which could fulfill the demands of both athletes and increased tourist populations. In other cases, such as in Rio de Janeiro, many construction and gentrification projects have been undertaken to compensate for the influx of visitors. Like many other countries that have hosted the Olympic Games, this has resulted in overspending and displacement of local low-income citizens.

Health concerns have recently plagued Brazil, causing issues for the IOC. The Zika virus originated in the Zika forest of Uganda, but has spread across the world in recent years, qualifying it as a pandemic. Its symptoms include headache, fever, rash, and red eyes; it has also created an epidemic of birth defects in South America, as the defects are localized to this particular region (McKenna, 2016). These incidences of birth defects are occurring as locally as the city of Macaé, which has a close relative location to Rio de Janeiro. This virus has caused athletes to drop out of the upcoming Olympic events. Medical professionals from around the world have contacted the World Health Organization, urging them to work with the IOC to postpone the games, or move them to a safer location. Despite these protests, the IOC insists on the unchanged continuation of the Olympic Games (McGowan & Said-Moorhouse, 2016). This poses a great risk for the thousands of athletes, and hundreds of thousands of tourists, traveling to Brazil this summer.

¬¬¬There has been an increasing amount of political instability in Brazil as the Olympic Games draw nearer. Last month, the Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff, was forced out of office following accusations of violating budget laws. This exploitation of the Brazilian economy has resulted in Vice President Temer taking office during an interim period of 180 days. The IOC has been forced to take these recent political incidences into account and evaluate the stability of both the Brazilian economy and political state. Even in the midst of political unrest and the worst recession Brazil has experienced in over 20 years, the IOC has concluded to make no changes to the upcoming Olympic Games (McGowan & Said-Moorhouse, 2016).

In order to make room for the newly constructed Olympic venues, Brazilian citizens have been displaced from their homes. In addition to this major construction, gentrification projects have been implemented in the anticipation of thousands of high-income tourists. The megalopolis city of Rio de Janeiro has a population density of 16,100 psm. Despite such a high population, the city is indifferent about dislocating the citizens of low-income communities. Community activists in Brazil state that these new projects are solely for the benefit of tourists and the Olympic Games will not service the poorer communities (McGowan & Said-Moorhouse, 2016).

Although the IOC has encountered several problems in hosting the upcoming games in Rio de Janeiro, they have decided to make no changes to the current dates or location. Various medical and economic experts object to this decision, but the IOC firmly believes that the centripetal forces caused by hosting the games will create greater political unity among Brazilians, and will benefit the country as a whole in the long run.

Works cited

  1. McGowan, C., & Said-Moorhouse, L. (2016, June 6). Rio Olympics: What you need to know. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/03/sport/rio-2016-olympics-what-you-need-to-know/index.html
  2. McKenna, M. (2016, March 4). The Zika Virus. The New England Journal of Medicine, 374(16), 1552–1563. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMra1602113
  3. Walker, M. (2014). The Olympic Games and the Environment. Routledge.
  4. Zimbalist, A. (2015). Rio 2016: Olympic Myths and Hard Realities. Oxford University Press.

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