Dark side of Rio: crumbling hotels, shootings, robberies, ‘police kidnappers' and the fatal car accident
XXXI Olympics in Brazil are going to be the most scandalous in modern history
XXXI Summer Olympics in Latin America will be remembered as the first one on the continent, and in the world — as one of the most scandalous. The doping disputes are only a shred in a colorful quilt of the Brazilian scandals. Unfinished Olympic facilities and the crumbling hotels welcomed the guests. But then it turned out that it is not the most important problem. The main problem is criminality, which has become almost the main feature of the Olympic Rio: beatings, thefts, robberies, which sometimes were carried out like in cinematic scenarios. The athletes themselves distinguished in the criminal actions. But the most terrible incident occurred with a German coach.
Hotels with no walls, crumbling ceilings and broken toilets
The whole world was watching how Brazil, suffering from the economic crisis, would cope with large-scale construction projects for the Olympics. The facilities and infrastructure were built in a hurry, that, however, can be seen almost at every game. How they have been built it became clear immediately after the arrival in Rio. The Western journalists found flaws in the hotels in Sochi at the Winter Olympics but the Sochi's leaking taps in some hotels are nothing to what they saw in Brazil. The first athletes who arrived to the Olympic village in Rio de Janeiro encountered problems in the rooms.
One of the first ones who enjoyed the infrastructure were the athletes from Australia, who complained about the leaking pipes, broken toilets, no lighting in the stairwells and a strong smell of gas. For this, some mass media considered Australians picky, but almost all other teams had exactly the same problems. An athlete posted in social networks the photos of the crumbling plaster and water flowing from the ceilings. The game participants complained that the rooms had no hot water and the cold water was supplied intermittently, the sewage system was not working, the floors, glass, stairwells were dirty. As a result, many teams simply moved from the Olympic village to hotels.
However, with the hotels the situation also was not going smoothly. Many of them were built specially for the Games and they simply did not have time to finish. Perhaps, the most revealing was the hotel 'Paradise', where the journalists of the Russian TV channel Match TV accomodated. The media representatives found that the rooms missed the front wall. 'We have huge experience, we have seen many things, but we were just confused. Nothing boded trouble, until we went further the room — to the kitchen. Imagine our surprise when we saw the panorama of the courtyard of 'Paradise'? And the walls between rooms were just sheets of drywall, covered with cellophane to protect from the rain,' said the journalists.
Collapsed ramp, unfinished courts and green water
However, the problems appeared immediately at the sports venues. A Russian tennis player Svetlana Kuznetsova complained about the terrible condition of the courts: 'I am very upset – the courts are not finished! To put it mildly, there is a real mess — a lot is unfinished, the courts are dusty and dirty. I have a feeling that I am training at a construction site.'
More athletes were surprised by the Olympic pools under the open sky, which began to cover with duckweed and turn green. Despite the fact that experts explained that it is necessary only to change the water, the organizers seem to have decided not to do labor of Sisyphus: water shall bloom again.
But, perhaps, the most serious incident with the Olympic facilities was the collapse of the main ramp for the participants of sailing sport. Fortunately, none of the athletes was injured, the organizers hastened to assure that the problem is not the quality of performed works but in high tide and storm.
Brazilian entertainment for the athletes: to become a victim of robbers or thieves
However, the real 'shtick' of the Olympics in Rio, which is notorious for its difficult crime situation, are robberies and thefts. Not a day was without someone among the athletes or journalists became a victim of Brazilian thieves or bandits from the notorious favelas.
One of the first Russians who suffered was a swimmer Evgeny Korotyshkin, who was attacked by two armed men in the area of Ipanema beach. At that moment, the Russian was going for lunch to the restaurant of Astor. Korotyshkin lost only cash and a smartphone. On the same beach the Minister of Education of Portugal Tiago Brandão Rodrigues was robbed. The Australian coaches were robbed by armed with knives teenagers. Less fortunate was the bronze medalist, a Belgian judoka Dirk Van Tichelt, who was not only robbed but beaten at the Copacabana beach.
Several attacks had the same cinematic scenario: the athletes were robbed by the bandits dressed as police officers. So, four American swimmers suffered, including the six-time Olympic champion Ryan Lochte, who was going back to the Olympic village from a party in a taxi. A New Zealand Jiu-Jitsu athlete Jason Lee was kidnapped by fake police officers, also from a car. He was driven to an ATM where he could pay off the kidnappers for 615 dollars.
However, most often the guests and participants of the Olympics faced burglaries. Including on the territory of the Olympic village and the official houses of the delegations. Thus, the 'Russian house' on the beach of Copacabana were robbed during the opening ceremony. A golden Russian medalist, a fencer, Yana Egoryan was robbed of a wallet just before the competitions.
In the Olympic Village, there have been a series of thefts of clothing and electronics: from the Australians, athletes from Iran, the members of the national team of Denmark. The national team of the UK lost nine bags with the team gear. The journalists also regularly suffer from thieves. So, in the same hotel without walls there were robbed the Russian journalists. Chinese videographers lost equipment worth several thousand dollars. The Ukrainian journalist's personal belongings were stolen from lockers in the press center. Needless to say that most thieves and robbers are left uncaught?
Brazil car accidents
In a series of incidents in Rio there are a few car accidents. The most terrible one happened on August 12. The coach of the German national team in slalom Stefan Henze was hurt. He was hospitalized severely injured but soon died from traumatic brain injury.
Another car accident happened with the delegation from Montenegro, which followed from the airport in Rio de Janeiro by car, allocated by IOC. Unknown provoked road accident. But they did not decided to wait for the police, they threatened with the weapon, the criminals robbed the delegates and stole their car.
Local battles
Sometimes news from the Olympic Rio de Janeiro resemble summary of fightings. So, during a bicycle race there was an explosion. At the finish line of cycle tracks there was found a subject similar to an explosive device. The organizers called the engineers, who, not having the time to deal with the subject, chose to destroy by aimed hit.
The bus with the journalists, which followed from the basketball game to the main Olympic Park, was fired from the street. In the result a window was broken, two people were injured. The journalists also came under fire at the press center. In a crowded room flew, as police said, 'a stray bullet' that went through the canvas roof of the room. Nobody was injured.
But the most juicy scandal happened with a Russian diplomat. According to media reports, the offender attempted to rob the fellow of the Consulate of the Russian Federation but he defending himself shot and killed the robber. Later, however, the Consul General of Russia in Rio de Janeiro Vladimir Tokmakov denied this information.