The Broken Promise of the Rio Olympics – The Atlantic

When I asked Mauro how he wound up winning the contract to build the Olympic golf course, he said Paes had approached him. He had known the mayor—a “hard worker”—since his term as Barra’s subprefeito in the 1990s. He warmed to Paes’s idea, he claimed, because of his vision of a golf course open to the public, where underprivileged youngsters could learn the sport. “Anything I can do for my fellow man, I do,” Mauro said. “I’ve always tried to create things that the country needed. My whole life, I’ve tried to help.”

Only begrudgingly did Mauro concede that, since 2006, he had been trying to build a golf course in the Barra area to accompany a condo project. He had initially failed to obtain approval because much of the land, on the banks of Marapendi Lake, had been classified as an environmental protection area. With the Olympics’ impending arrival, the city council changed the area’s status in a lame-duck session at the end of 2012. Paes justified the decision by saying the area had already been “degraded” by a sand-mining operation. At the inauguration of the golf course, he stood triumphantly on the green. “Does this look like an environmental crime?” he asked. He neglected to mention that the operation had belonged to Mauro himself—one of the many businesses that the old tycoon had proudly listed off to me.

As is often the case in the mayor’s pronouncements, it’s hard to separate spin from fact. Rio already had two golf courses that could have been refurbished, but Paes said neither fit the requirements of the Olympic organizers. When he heard this, Thomas Bach, head of the International Olympic Committee, responded: “I’m a little surprised because as we all know, the mayor was pushing very much for this [new course] to happen.” While there is no official record of donations from Mauro to Paes, Mauro’s partner in the condo development adjacent to the golf course, a company known as Cyrela, gave around $300,000 to his reelection campaign in 2012.

Ironically, several top golfers have since decided not to compete in the Olympics. They’re worried about catching the Zika virus.

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Though Paes rejects the idea that the Olympics have disproportionately benefited the well-to-do, even he now admits that the games are a “missed opportunity” for Rio. But he alone can’t be blamed for the city’s problems, which are shared by cities across Brazil and reflect decades, if not centuries, of neglect for its poorest citizens. Eight years under a different mayor would not have fundamentally transformed a divided city, even if that mayor had managed to put an end to the give-and-take between campaign donors and public servants.

At this point, perhaps the best Olympic legacy that Brazilians can hope for is that the event will serve as a cautionary tale to future generations. Still, it’s worth asking: If Rio’s priorities had been different, what might the city look like today?