What a fiasco. The Olympic Games shoud have NEVER been awarded to this city.

[DonRedwood]

11. So.... The Olympic Games should not have been awarded to Atlanta because

A lone individual planted a pipe bomb several years AFTER Atlanta was named? How is that Atlanta's fault? By that reasoning Munich should not have had the games because years after choosing Munich bad people did something and people were killed. Or New York should not have had the World Trade Center because years later bad people did something bad.

I guess I don't understand how you can compare a lone person's actions to Rio not cleaning up their sewage problem like they promised, or providing safe water.

But I think the true issue here is most countries that have hosted the Olympics already had the infrastructure in place or, like many Winter Olympics, were held in a place where there was not a huge metropolitan city with existing issues and problems in place to work around. The Olympics place a huge burden on the host city and Rio already had a lot to fix and deal with without the influx of troubles the Olympics create. A wealthy country can absorb some of those losses more easily but a country in the midst of modernization is already dealing with huge costs.

My apologies though if what I write offends you. To be honest I was Estonia, Finland and Latvia for most of the Olympics and the coverage there was mostly about the sports and the athletes and aside from water quality and a few robberies I didn't see anything negative (though, again, much of the broadcasting was not in English). The main thing I saw that caused me concern was the huge number of empty seats--which made me fear Brazil was losing large amounts of money and hurting their economy by undertaking such a huge fete.

So, pardon me if I don't understand your attack against Atlanta based on one person's actions. But if it makes you feel any better the coverage I saw was very positive and Brazil was credited for being friendly, welcoming and for doing their best.