That's a Wrap

Well, that's a wrap on Rio 2016!

Today is always a terribly sad and depressing day for me. No more Olympics. No more nightly dose of Bob Costas. No more of my favorite news programs reporting from the games. No more chances to imagine thats me on the podium with the national anthem playing. Wait, did I just say that last one out loud? Oh, well. Tell me you haven't imagined that as well?! When they distinguish the Olympic flame it's like someone puts out the fire in my soul. However, my body (and soul) is looking forward to returning to more than five hours of sleep a night.

There were the various topics of worry leading into the games: Zika, crime, terrorism, traffic, water quality, etc. But as I will always point out, the media has to find something to talk about before the games start. It's ALWAYS something. Then the Olympics finally start and the focus is on the actual competition. Then you realize the Olympics are greater than everything else and all that surrounded it.

Rio put on a great Olympics. Were there some issues? Yes. There was traffic and some of the venues had some structural issues from time to time. But nothing to the extent that some people were elaborating on. And all the athletes that stayed home...they missed out.

The people of Rio and Brazil were very intent on putting on a great games and showing their home to the world. They took it seriously, which is why the false accounts from Ryan Lochte were such a big deal. To them, he was slandering everything they had worked towards.

I have a good friend from college who is a first-generation American. Her parents are Brazilian and most of her extended family still lives there (and in Rio specifically). She has always talked about Brazil with such fondness that it almost hurt me for her when I listened to all the various attacks on the country and city of Rio. She posted some very poignant thoughts prior to the start of the games that I thought was worthy to share.

"Rio de Janeiro is known as Cidade Maravilhosa - The Beautiful City. It is a place where each view is more breathtaking than the next; where colors and music fill the streets. In 2009, when Rio accepted the bid to host the 2016 Olympics Brazil was in the largest economic boom in its history. It was the sixth largest economy in the world. Now, seven years later, it is experiencing what is likely the worst economic downturn in its history and expected to provide the infrastructure for a massive global event that most well established economies struggle to meet. Imagine having to host a modern day Olympics during the Great Depression. It is easy to look down with disapproval on Rio from the perspective of an American who has never seen the poverty or corruption common in most South American countries. But I encourage you to remember that the US and Western Europe are exceptions to the rule when it comes to how most countries on Earth exist, and appreciate how a struggling nation came together as best it could during a time that is literally being called 'the crisis' to open its arms to the world."

I think this country did come together and open its arms to the world. And the world embraced it back. Time will tell what the long-term effects of the games will be on Brazil (good or bad), but I hope that the success gives the people a boost, knowing that the world enjoyed these 17 days and that 2016 will be remembered as a great Olympic games.

I will continue to post some more thoughts here when I get some time as I have a few more posts I'd like to share. But for the most part that's all for Rio! Only 535 days and counting until Pyeongchang 2018!