It is known as the land of hot music, beautiful bodies and raucous parties. No, it's not Oxford, Ohio, but rather Rio de Janeiro, which, in dramatic fashion, beat out Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo in early October to win the International Olympic Committee (IOC) bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Rio's selection marks the most recent milestone in Brazil's march towards international recognition. Becoming the only South American city to ever host the Olympic Games, Rio's victory is an affirmation of the emerging stature in a continent historically neglected by the games in favor of the larger European powers.
Already playing host to the World Cup in 2014, Brazil, it seems, is finally receiving the recognition the country so deeply desires. Armed with an emerging economy propelled by a consumer-spending boom and the discovery of large deposits of deep-sea oil, Brazil may finally be hitting its stride. As President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said in a teary speech in Copenhagen after the bid was announced, "Brazil went from a second-class country to a first-class country, and today we began to receive the respect we deserve."
The games offer Brazil a long-awaited chance to solidify its position as a legitimate world power. Arguably, da Silva has overtaken Venezuela's Hugo Chavez as the most influential leader in South America. But Brazil seeks to become a global leader. Its leaders are already on friendly terms with both President Obama and Exxon oil executives and recently have negotiated military deals with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. The games could be da Silva's seminal achievement in his fortune-filled presidency.
However, if Brazil is truly going to become the first class country as da Silva says, it has a long way to go before the Olympic Games torch is lit in 2016. Rio has long been victim to poverty and rampant crime at the hands of drug dealers who rule the thousands of slums in Rio. While Brazilian officials have pledged to crack down on criminals in Rio, a shooting in late October that left more than 40 dead, including three police officers, is an ominous reminder of the problems that may lie ahead. With more than 5,700 homicides in Rio in 2008, it is clear a police force overwhelmed by equally armed and aggressive gang members will have to be revamped. The Brazilian government has responded by pledging $55 million in new funding for Rio police, but it is yet to be seen if they can penetrate the slums.
In any case, if Rio is to host a truly successful Olympic Games it will have to go beyond providing the athletes with a private leisure beach, as promised, and tackle deeply seeded social issues that have plagued the city for years. This will require more than just deploying thousands of brightly uniformed police officers, who leave shortly after the games finish.
The games then offer Rio a unique opportunity that, if seized, could reap great long-term benefits. Newly constructed infrastructure such as light-rails could leave Rio better equipped for years to come and revamp its tourist industry as the games did for Barcelona in 1992. The new jobs that will be created could also boost an already growing economy to new heights. Finally, Rio can use the games to catapult the city to a restored notoriety within Brazil, which has been on decline since the recent growth of São Paulo and the loss of its capital city status to Brasília in the 1960s. That being said, the Brazilian government needs to be careful not to become intoxicated on Olympic fervor and forget to tackle the large-scale poverty still rampant in the country, a lesson Mexico learned all too well when it hosted the games in 1968.
Rio certainly has its work cut out, but Brazil is eager to show the world it deserves to be considered a legitimate world power and most likely will not disappoint. The city has the resources and now must go forward with foresight and precaution. If handled with care, the Rio 2016 Olympic Games promise to be as lively and joyous as the bossa nova rhythms that dance along its streets every night.
Will Hoyt hoytws@muohio.edu ?
