Brazil never should have hosted the Olympics. It was only through sheer luck that the worst stories to come out of the Olympics concerned Ryan Lochte’s antics, and not an outbreak of Zika or the murder of an Olympian.
It was only last May when the Brazilian army moved into Rio’s favelas, Brazilian slums, to retake them from powerful gangs. Any city that needs the army to battle for internal control should not have been selected to host the largest sporting event in the world.
With the threat of gang violence was the reservation toward high crime rates in Brazil. Forbes called Brazil the “murder capital of the world” just months before the Olympics began. And according to the Center for Public Security And Criminal Justice, Brazil has 22 of the 50 worst cities by murder rate.
While most of America has far more crime than Saratoga has, the United States is no Brazil. The Brazilian murder rate is a staggering 523 percent higher than that of the U.S. and an incredible 3,600 percent higher than that of the United Kingdom.
Olympians were not isolated from these crimes. The Australian Olympic team suffered heavily because of this; arsonists lit the Australians’ quarters on fire to distract the athletes while the criminals robbed their rooms. Subsequently, the team’s rowing coaches were robbed, prompting Australian officials to prohibit the team from visiting Rio’s beaches for their own safety.
Third-world Brazil also fell down on the job in the health department. The Associated Press reported that outdoor Olympic swimmers would only have to swallow three teaspoons of waterway water to be certain of contracting a virus, adding to the concerns of the international community.
Despite reassurances by the Brazilian government that it would sanitize its water, Brazil lacked the ability to literally clean up its act. During the games, a human foot washed up on one of the beaches. Even after reports of human remains being cleared that were further out from shore, this remained a problem.
All of these occurrences show that Brazil was not prepared to host the games, and they will act as a reminder that not every country should be given the opportunity. Most countries, including Brazil, cannot handle the political, financial and social challenges of hosting the Olympics. The Olympic Committee has only ever selected two countries that were not in the Anglosphere, in Europe or East Asian. In order to have a successful, and above all else, safe Olympics, the committee must not repeat the mistake of selecting a country unprepared to host.
