The lead-up to the Rio Games was marked by several controversies, including: Brazil's
political and
economic crisis; the
Zika virus epidemic; the significant
pollution in the Guanabara Bay; and an ongoing
doping scandal involving
Russia, which affected the participation of Russian athletes in the Games. However, the Zika virus was not contracted by anyone competing in or attending the Olympics, and the Games went ahead normally with no major incident.
Political and economic crisis during an interview with
Al Jazeera at the
Alvorada Palace on 1 June 2016 There is no legally legitimate evidence of impropriety in the choice of Rio to host the Olympic games, at least as far as the Brazilian Olympic Committee or the politicians involved in the process are concerned. However, the specialized media raised suspicions about it. In 2014,
Operation Car Wash, an investigation by the
Federal Police of Brazil, uncovered unprecedented
money laundering and corruption at the state-controlled oil company
Petrobras. In early 2015, a series of protests against alleged corruption by the government of President
Dilma Rousseff began in Brazil, triggered by revelations that numerous politicians were involved in the Petrobras affair. By early 2016, the scandal had escalated into a full-blown political crisis affecting not only President Rousseff, but also former President
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, resulting in
widespread demonstrations involving millions of protesters, both anti- and pro-Rousseff. At the same time, Brazil faced its worst economic recession since the 1990s, raising questions about whether the country was adequately prepared to host the Olympic Games against a volatile political and economic backdrop. On 12 May 2016, President Rousseff was stripped of her powers and duties for 180 days after an
impeachment vote in the
Federal Senate, with Vice President
Michel Temer standing in as
acting president during the Games. On 5 October 2017, Brazilian Olympic Committee head
Carlos Nuzman was arrested amid a money-laundering investigation into a $2 million payment that was allegedly made to secure votes for the bid to bring the Olympics to Rio. The money was believed to have been paid to former
IAAF president
Lamine Diack and his son Papa Massata Diack, who was a member of the IOC at the time of the alleged payment, which was three days before the vote in 2009. All three were charged with money laundering, along with the former Rio state governor
Sérgio Cabral Filho (who was already in prison for money laundering offenses at the time), Brazilian businessman Arthur Soares, and ex-Brazilian Olympic Committee chief Leonardo Gryner. All six were charged with running a criminal organization, money laundering, and violating currency laws in their own native countries. On 4 July 2019, it was reported that Cabral told a judge that the money paid to Diack was used to buy as many as nine votes. Rio mayor
Eduardo Paes was also accused of corruption and fraud in relation to the construction of a number of venues for the Games. In 2024, Nuzman's and Cabral's conviction in this legal case was overturned by the Court.
Zika virus , São Paulo An
outbreak of the mosquito-borne
Zika virus in Brazil raised fears regarding its potential impact on athletes and visitors. To prevent puddles of stagnant water that allow mosquitoes to breed, organizers announced plans to perform daily inspections of Olympic venues. Zika virus transmission was also attributed to
inefficient sewage treatment in the area, an issue that was also in the process of being addressed for the Games. In May 2016, a group of 150 physicians and scientists sent an open letter to the
World Health Organization (WHO), calling upon them to, according to co-author
Arthur Caplan, have "an open, transparent discussion of the risks of holding the Olympics as planned in Brazil". The WHO dismissed the request, stating that "cancelling or changing the location of the 2016 Olympics [would] not significantly alter the international spread of Zika virus", and that there was "no public health justification" for postponing them.
Some athletes did not attend the Games because of the epidemic. On 2 September 2016, however, the World Health Organization reported that there were no confirmed cases of Zika among athletes or visitors during the 2016 Olympics.
Environmental problems hosted the
cycling road race (start and finish),
marathon swimming and
triathlon events. The
Guanabara Bay, whose waters were used for sailing and windsurfing competitions, is heavily polluted. Among the chief causes of the pollution are uncollected trash fed into the bay via polluted rivers and
slums along the coast. Pollution of the Guanabara has been a long-term issue. At the
Earth Summit in 1992, officials promised they would begin to address the pollution, but previous attempts to do so have been insufficient. As an aspect of their bid for the Games, Rio once again committed to making efforts towards cleaning the bay. However, some of these proposed initiatives have faced budgetary issues. Prior to these efforts, only 17% of Rio's sewage was treated; this
raw sewage also leaked into the bay. Although Rio mayor
Eduardo Paes stated that the city might not be able to reach its goal of having 80% of sewage treated, at least 60% of sewage was treated by March 2016, with a projected goal of 65% of sewage being treated by the start of the Olympics.
Security fighter jet of the
Brazilian Air Force during an air intercept training for Rio 2016 Rio's crime problems also received renewed attention after it was awarded the 2016 Games; mayor Paes stated that the city was facing "big issues" in heightening security, but that such concerns and issues were presented to the IOC throughout the bidding process. The governor of Rio de Janeiro also highlighted the fact that London faced security problems, with a
terrorist attack occurring just a day after it was awarded the
2012 Summer Olympics. The estimate was that 5,000 men of the
National Public Security Force and 22,000 military officers (14,800
Army; 5,900
Navy and 1,300 of the
Brazilian Air Force), in addition to the fixed quota of Rio January, would act during the Olympic Games. On 21 July 2016, two weeks before the scheduled start of the Games, the
Brazilian Federal Police broke up an
Islamic jihadist terrorist cell named
Ansar al-Khilafah Brazil by arresting 12 people.
Russian doping scandal in
Moscow In December 2014, media attention began growing when German broadcaster
ARD reported on state-sponsored doping in Russia, comparing it to
doping in East Germany. In November 2015, the
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) published a report, and the
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) suspended Russia indefinitely from world track and field events. The United Kingdom Anti-Doping agency later assisted WADA with testing in Russia. In June 2016, they reported they were unable to fully carry out their work, and noted intimidation by armed
Federal Security Service (FSB) agents. After a Russian former lab director made allegations about the
2014 Winter Olympics in
Sochi, WADA commissioned an independent investigation led by
Richard McLaren, which found corroborating evidence, concluding in a report published in July 2016 that the
Ministry of Sport and the FSB had operated a "state-directed failsafe system" using a "disappearing positive [test] methodology" (DPM) from "at least late 2011 to August 2015". In response to these findings, WADA announced that RUSADA should be regarded as non-compliant with respect to the World Anti-Doping Code, and recommended that Russia be banned from competing in the 2016 Summer Olympics. The IOC rejected the recommendation, stating that the IOC and each sport's
international federation would make decisions on each athlete's individual basis. A day before the opening ceremony, 278 athletes were cleared to compete under the Russian flag, while 111 were removed because of doping. In contrast, the entire Kuwaiti team was banned from competing under their own flag for a non-doping related matter. Unlike the IOC, the
International Paralympic Committee voted unanimously to ban the entire
Russian team from the
2016 Summer Paralympics, and suspended the
Russian Paralympic Committee after it found evidence that the DPM was also in operation at the
2014 Winter Paralympics. == See also ==