Rio de Janeiro wins right to host 2016 Olympics

<cite class="vcard"> By JOHN LEICESTER, AP Sports Writer John Leicester, Ap Sports Writer </cite> <abbr title="2009-10-02T09:54:20-0700" class="recenttimedate">3 mins ago</abbr>

COPENHAGEN – The 2016 Olympics are going to Rio de Janeiro, putting the games in South America for the first time.
Rio beat surprise finalist Madrid in the last round of voting.

Chicago was knocked out in the first round — in one of the most shocking defeats ever handed down by the International Olympic Committee — and Tokyo was eliminated in the second round.
Rio had played heavily on the fact that South America has never previously hosted the games, while Europe, Asia and North America have done so repeatedly. Now, only Africa and Antarctica remain as continents that have not been awarded an Olympics.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
COPENHAGEN (AP) — Rio de Janeiro or Madrid — one of them will host the 2016 Olympics.
Chicago is out — one of the most shocking defeats ever handed down by the International Olympic Committee — as President Barack Obama's appeals for his adopted hometown failed.

Tokyo was knocked out in the second round on Friday, surviving one round longer than Chicago.
That left just Rio and Madrid still in the mix. The IOC voted again to separate the two and elected a winner, which will be announced by IOC president Jacques Rogge later Friday.

Madrid's surprising success in reaching the final round came after former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch made an unusual appeal for the Spanish capital, reminding the IOC members as he asked for their vote that, at age 89, "I am very near the end of my time."

Chicago had long been seen as a front-runner and got the highest possible level of support — from Obama himself. But he also only spent a few hours in the Danish capital where the vote was held and left before the result was announced. Former IOC member Kai Holm said that the brevity of his appearance may have counted against him.

The short stopover was "too business-like," Holm said. "It can be that some IOC members see it as a lack of respect."
Senior Australian IOC member Kevan Gosper surmised that Asian voters may have banded together for Tokyo in the first round, at Chicago's expense.

"I'm shocked," Gosper said. "The whole thing doesn't make sense other than there has been a stupid bloc vote."
He worried that Chicago's shocking exit could do "untold damage" to relations between the IOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee.

"To have the president of the United States and his wife personally appear, then this should happen in the first round is awful and totally undeserving," he said.

The European-dominated IOC's last two experiences in the United States were marred by controversy: the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics were sullied by a bribery scandal and logistical problems and a bombing hit the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
Obama had held out the enticing prospect of a Chicago games helping to reconnect the United States with the world after the presidency of George W. Bush. He told the IOC earlier Friday that the "full force of the White House" would be applied so "visitors from all around the world feel welcome and will come away with a sense of the incredible diversity of the American people."

Now, Chicago can only rue what might have been. And Obama's gamble of expending his own political capital on the bid backfired.

The last U.S. city to bid for the Summer Games, New York, did scarcely better. It was ousted in the second round in the 2005 vote that gave the 2012 Games to London. The U.S. Olympic Committee has had a testy relationship with the IOC, including recent flare-ups over revenue sharing and a USOC TV network.

Tokyo did better than many expected by reaching the second round. It had offered reassurances of financial security, with $4 billion already banked for the games.

But the fact that the Olympics were held only last year in Asia, in Beijing, handicapped the Japanese capital's bid.
Its plans for a highly compact games, sparing athletes tiring travel by holding all but the shooting within 5 miles of the city center, were technically appealing. But the bid failed to generate real enthusiasm, even in Japan. Tokyo had the lowest public backing in IOC polls.

Tokyo's final presentation Friday to the IOC, while smooth and heartfelt, lacked the buzz that the Obamas and Rio generated. In short, Tokyo was simply overshadowed, failing to convince IOC members that it really wanted or needed the games.

Obama had held out the enticing prospect of a Chicago games helping to reconnect the United States with the world after the presidency of George W. Bush.

Woes Confound Rio in Run-Up to Olympic Games

A ‘perfect storm’ of fiscal and security concerns threaten to mar the city’s long-awaited Olympic moment

June 30, 2016

RIO DE JANEIRO—A string of embarrassing incidents and local crises five weeks before the Olympics kick off in Rio has put organizers on edge and left many foreigners wondering whether the troubled tourist destination is ready.

This week, a human foot washed ashore on Copacabana Beach, yards from where beach volleyball players will compete. On Thursday Brazil replaced its top antidoping official after Rio’s testing facility was suspended by international authorities, adding to the uncertainty around efforts to keep the Summer Games clean. Meanwhile, shootouts raged in several working-class neighborhoods known as favelas as police searched for a suspected drug trafficker.

Some scrambling is normal in the weeks leading up to any megaevent, and most of Rio’s athletic venues are ready. But a confluence of woes is threatening to upend what was supposed to be Rio’s coming-out party on the world stage.

Brazil’s worst recession in decades has pushed the state government, responsible for almost all policing in the capital, to the brink of bankruptcy.

Thousands of Rio civil servants, from doctors at public hospitals to firefighters, are threatening to strike over unpaid salaries and poor working conditions. Police stations have had to beg for basic supplies, including toilet paper, from civilian neighbors. The acting governor of Rio state in June declared a “state of public calamity” and warned that police cars would soon run out of gas unless the federal government helps out with funds.

This isn’t how the final days before the Olympics were supposed to play out. When Rio won the bid to host the Games in 2009, Brazil was enjoying a multiyear economic boom and thousands of locals gathered on Copacabana beach to cheer the news. Now, a discontented population is planning protests for the day of the opening ceremony.

Some firefighters have taken to walking miles to work in their uniforms, both as a form of protest and because they can’t afford transportation. On Monday a group of local police officers and firefighters held a demonstration at Rio’s international airport with a banner in English reading, “Welcome to hell. Police and firefighters don’t get paid. Whoever comes to Rio de Janeiro will not be safe.”

The dismal conditions and financial constraints among medical and emergency-service workers have raised concerns about how Rio would cope in the event of a major public-health emergency such as a bus or train accident during the Games.

The situation is particularly acute at the city’s public hospitals. A hospital located near the Maracanã stadium, the site of soccer games and the opening and closing ceremonies, has been forced to reduce its patient load by roughly 50% and stop performing many lifesaving surgeries for lack of funds.

A number of recent violent incidents have raised concerns about the city’s preparedness to keep visitors safe.

State police have made almost daily raids this week on favelas across greater Rio, waging deadly gunbattles in an effort to recapture alleged drug lord Nicolas Labre Pereira, nicknamed Fat Family. The overweight gangster’s posse recently freed him from custody after a shootout at one of the city’s biggest emergency hospitals. Since June 20, at least eight people have been killed in shootouts with police. Fat Family, meanwhile, remains at large.

Rio’s state government said Thursday that 84 people were killed by police in May, a 91% increase from a year earlier. Street muggings are up 43% this year, with 9,968 cases in May alone. The state has asked the Brazilian military to take over local security earlier than planned and to stay after the Olympics. The combined security force is expected to total roughly 85,000.

Recent Portuguese-language posts on encrypted websites and instant-messaging platforms linked to Islamic State have raised the specter of terrorism. Brazilian officials have sought help from the U.S. and other Western nations more accustomed to dealing with such threats.

And local organizers are still working to allay fears about the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which have led several high-profile athletes to skip the Games.

Rio Officials Insist City Will Be Ready for Olympics

Mayor says visitors should moderate expectations

July 5, 2016

RIO DE JANEIRO—With just a month to go in what has been a tumultuous lead-up to the Summer Olympics, Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes said Tuesday the city will be ready but visitors should moderate their expectations.

Mr. Paes, who appeared at a press conference with officials including Carlos Nuzman, the head of the Olympics organizing committee, sought to assure those planning to come to Brazil in August that a recent series of crises and embarrassing incidents in Rio won’t mar the games themselves.

He declared Rio to be a “transformed city,” highlighting several recently completed development projects such as new rapid-bus lines and a revamped port area.

Still, the mayor urged the world not to expect perfection or to judge Rio by the standards of cities in the developed world.

“People believe that either the Olympics solved all the problems of Brazil, or that it caused all the problems of Brazil. Neither is correct,” Mr. Paes said. “We ask you to compare Rio with Rio.”

Worries over the Zika virus, Rio’s water quality, potential terrorist threats and a surge in local crime, among other issues, have pressured organizers in recent weeks.

Spending lavishly on a short-lived event is, economically speaking, a dubious long-term strategy. Stadiums, which cost a lot and produce minimal economic benefits, are a particularly lousy line of business. (This is why they are usually built by taxpayers rather than by corporations.) And even though Brazil, like other recent hosts, has sought to make stadium spending more palatable by also building general infrastructure, like highways and airports, the public would derive the same benefit at far less cost if the transportation projects were built and the stadiums were not.

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The Rio 2016 torch relay will begin with a ceremonial start in Olympia, Greece, in May 2016, spanning 90 to 100 days and including 10,000 torch bearers. The flame will traverse 12,000 miles across Brazil for 90 to 100 days before the Olympic cauldron will be lit at the Maracana Stadium on Aug. 5, 2016.

Brazil Police Arrest 10 Suspected of Planning Terror Attack

Two still being sought in investigation that comes two weeks ahead of Olympic Games in Rio

July 21, 2016

SÃO PAULO—Brazil’s federal police on Thursday arrested 10 Brazilians allegedly linked with the Islamic State who authorities said were planning to commit terrorist acts, just two weeks ahead of the start of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes said that the operation had been coordinated and carried out by members of Brazil’s armed forces and the ABIN, the country’s equivalent of the CIA, with help from international intelligence agencies. Mr. Moraes said that two other suspects are being sought.

Mr. Moraes said the suspects were members of a terrorist cell that had communicated via an encrypted messaging service, and had gone from exchanging comments about the Islamic State to making preparations for an attack.

Mr. Moraes said that one of the suspects had tried to purchase an AK-47 rifle in Paraguay, which shares a porous border area with Brazil and Argentina. That region is notorious for money-laundering and drugs and arms trafficking. It wasn’t clear whether that purchase had been made.

Mr. Moraes said there was no clear target for the alleged attacks. But the arrests are certain to elevate concerns about the possibility of a terrorist attack at the Games and raise additional questions over Brazil’s security preparations.

An estimated 500,000 tourists and athletes are expected to descend on Rio for the Games, including about 200,000 from the United States.

Russia Loses Appeal Against Olympic Ban on Track-and-Field Athletes

July 21, 2016

Russia’s Olympic delegation moved a step closer to being banned from the Rio Games after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled on Thursday that individual athletes could be punished collectively for doping violations committed by sports officials and coaches.

The decision means Russia’s track and field athletes almost certainly won’t participate in next month’s Games in Rio, and opens the door for the International Olympic Committee to ban the entire Russian delegation. It also further inflames a doping controversy that Russian President Vladimir Putin has derided as political but now appears likely to cast a dark cloud over the Games.

The prohibition was put in effect in November, following a report from the World Anti-Doping Agency that detailed how Russian track officials conspired with coaches, athletes and former leaders of the IAAF to cover up positive drug tests.

The decision by the court based in Lausanne, Switzerland, now clears the way for the IOC to heed the call of a growing number of antidoping officials, athletes and members of its own Athlete’s Commission to ban the entire Russian team. Those calls intensified this week after another WADA report detailed how the Russian Ministry of Sport conspired to corrupt the antidoping lab at the Sochi Olympics and hid performance enhancing drug use for more than five years.

After the report’s release Monday, the IOC convened an emergency meeting of its executive board. In a statement after the meeting, IOC President Thomas Bach said, “The findings of the report show a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and on the Olympic Games. Therefore, the IOC will not hesitate to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organization implicated.”The organization banned all sports officials named in the report from Rio but said the IOC needed to explore its legal options and await a decision in the case in front of CAS before deciding whether it could enact a collective punishment and ban the entire Russian team.The IOC has left the door open to allow Russian athletes to compete if they can prove that they have a clean doping record and have undergone extensive testing by an agency outside of Russia for a significant period ahead of the Rio Games.

“The eligibility of each Russian athlete will have to be decided by his or her International Federation (IF) based on an individual analysis of his or her international antidoping record,” the statement issued Tuesday said.