Brazilians See Opportunity, Accountability in Olympic Spotlight
By Theresa Bradley | October 05, 2009 | Brazil
Cheers and whistles poured over the Sao Paulo streets into a quiet office above a cobblestone alley, sending an engineer leaping from his chair to his computer to check the internet for the second time in 15 minutes. This time, the results were in: Rio de Janiero had been awarded the XXXI Olympic Games, ending a more than two-year bid that had been covered in Brazil with all the suspense of a political election.
“This is very good,” the engineer said, banging both hands on the table and setting the scene for a cascade of the kind of “Proud to be Brazilian” patriotism that's echoed in dozens of local ad campaigns. But pragmatism, not nationalism, followed. “Now we're powerful because we can really say to the government, ‘We have to comply with everything that we promised’” the world that Brazil would do to prepare for the Games, he said.
Rio’s selection as South America’s first Olympic host is clearly a major point of national pride. In Copenhagen on Friday for the IOC’s announcement, President Lula cried openly, hugging an emotional Pele and mopping his own tears at a press conference. “Today might be the most exciting day of my life,” Lula told cameras. “Today I feel even prouder to be Brazilian.”
But many people here – even those who initially dismissed the Olympic bid as a magnet for corrupt contracting and political posturing – are welcoming the win for other reasons, too, hoping the Games’ global spotlight will force their government to follow through on specific infrastructure, security and environmental commitments made in Brazil's official pitch to the International Olympic Committee.
As they did for China (where Olympic-themed pop songs and posters were ubiquitous at least three years before the 2008 Opening Ceremony), the Games give Brazil a chance to showcase its growing economy and global clout. For Lula, who is seen as almost single-handedly responsible for the IOC's decision, the Olympics may keep his legacy fresh on Brazilian minds long after his second term in office expires next year, and could help the presidential campaign of his chief-of-staff and chosen successor Dilma Rousseff – who personally presided over celebrations in Rio on Friday.
After failed bids to win the Games in 2004 and 2012, Rio met this year's win with a 50,000-person beach party that convened around noon and continued into the night. Some 260 miles away in the slightly more sober city of Sao Paulo, coverage wallpapered newsstands and newssites, including at least 82 separate stories and videos related to the decision that were posted on leading daily Folha de S. Paulo’s page on Friday alone.
Brazilian media cast Rio’s selection as a regional achievement cementing Brazil’s spot as Latin America’s leader, noting that even arch-soccer-rival Argentina celebrated the decision in a way it would’ve never feted a win by Madrid, the 2016 runner up and Argentina’s more obvious Spanish progenitor.
Brazilians also took some satisfaction in the fact that Lula had essentially defeated Obama, who is hugely popular in Brazil but had flown to Copenhagen to lobby for his hometown, Chicago, seen as Rio’s biggest rival. Lula had even used Obama’s “Yes We Can” motto as part of his pitch; and a cruder local parody (roughly translating as “Yes we can screw the U.S.\") flew to the top of Twitter’s Trending Topics as Brazilians celebrated their win, according to O Globo.
Olympic preparations are expected to cost US$14 billion, including $5 billion on transporation infrastructure and about $1 billion each on water and sewage projects and on police and security – in addition to the cash Brazil is already spending to host the 2014 World Cup. Organizers risk repeating the mistakes of the 2007 Pan-Am Games, also held in Rio, which saw promised roads, subways and clean-up go undelivered and prompted investigations into budget irregularities.
But Lula isn’t holding back on his ambition. Not only is he pledging to prepare for the Olympics with anti-crime and development efforts, he’s suggesting that Brazil's economic boom might itself slash poverty enough to transform Rio’s notorious slums into working neighborhoods by the time the Olympic torch is lit. The spotlight will be on.
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