Rio de Janeiro returns to normal after marathon of mega events

It is the end of an era for Rio de Janeiro. The Paralympics closing ceremony on Sunday, after four years in the global spotlight, marks the finishing line in a marathon of mega events that the host city will look back on for some time with a mixture of headaches, nostalgia, relief and no little self-congratulation.

“Mission accomplished,” the Rio 2016 president, Carlos Arthur Nuzman, declared to the 78,000 spectators before the final pyrotechnics at the Maracanã.

Sir Philip Craven, president of the International Paralympic Committee, told the crowd: “You defied expectations and turned ill-found pity into pride. You are now heroes and role models for sports fans around the world. You should all be proud.”

Despite the mutual back-slapping, honorary medals and lavish praise of the organisers, there were still boos for the politicians and relieved smiles from many of those involved because these Games have been touch-and-go at times, coming at the end of a remarkably turbulent and gruelling period.

From the world’s biggest sustainability conference in 2012, through Pope Francis’s first overseas visit in 2013, the World Cup in 2014 and now this year’s Olympics, this Brazilian city has somehow come through a series of epic challenges largely unscathed – and, in some areas, improved – despite government collapse, mass protests, eye-popping corruption, rampant crime and the Zika virus health emergency.

In no small part that is thanks to the city’s astonishing natural beauty which has always absolved many of the sins of its residents and visitors. Regardless of poor organisation, social inequality, or the dubious quality of the water in the pool or the bay, every contest has looked spectacular set against blue skies, verdant mountains and ocean horizons. These images will shape the memory of the billions who experienced Rio through distant TV screens or laptops.
The Paralympics was notable for its absences as well as its achievements. The entire Russian team were banned for systematic use of illegal performance‑enhancing drugs. The head of the IOC, Thomas Bach failed to show up to his own party perhaps not coincidentally because Brazilian police wanted to question him about ticket-touting allegations against his close ally, the head of the Irish Olympic council, Pat Hickey.

Rio’s Games – the first in South America – were also going to be a little different. Veteran Olympic officials have said privately they were the most chaotic, politically troubled, financially insecure Games of modern times, but they ended without major calamity.

There were individual tragedies, too. The death of the Iranian cyclist Bahman Golbarnezhad in a crash on the final Saturday was marked by a moment of silence. The fatalities of the more than a dozen construction workers who died building the facilities went unremarked. There were also several embarrassing setbacks, such as problems with the accommodation at the athletes’ village, but impressive sporting displays and warm crowds – particularly at the Paralympics, when ticket prices were finally dropped within an affordable range for the local population – helped to leave a good impression.

Lamartine da Costa, a professor of Sports History at the Gama Filho University, said the mobilisation of the public made the Paralympics more of a success than its preceeding events. “The population is in the legacy. In fact, it’s beyond a legacy. It’s a feeling of belonging. And this becomes a political fact.”

The final debt for Rio’s taxpayers has yet to be calculated. Despite promises not to use public money, emergency loans had to be provided by the national government in June to meet a shortfall in the Rio state security budget. Last month, the city had to provide another 150m reais (£35m) to bail out the cash-strapped Paralympics. A late boost in ticket sales – from 200,000 to 2.1m in less than a month – will have helped to cover part of this hole. In a closing press conference the Rio 2016 chief executive, Sidney Levy, said that at most 1% of the organising committee budget will come from public funds, and overall the Games were within budget.

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Thanks also to an infusion of private cash and federal funds, Bruno Barth Sobral, an economics professor at Rio’s State University, said the Rio government would not be left with a financial bomb as was the case with the Panamerican Games and the World Cup, but he said poor planning meant the city’s short-term economic boost from the mega-events would not maintain momentum in the long run.

Overall he said Rio’s biggest achievement was to overcome Brazil’s “stray dog” inferiority. “It showed the world that we are capable of hosting these events, contrary to the prejudiced view that they are only suitable for the first world.”

Few of the politicians who brought this cascade of events to the city will be around to reap the rewards.

The Olympics and Paralympics has coincided with a seismic shift in national politics. Last month the Workers Party president Dilma Rousseff was impeached and replaced by the equally unpopular Michel Temer, who has been loudly booed at every appearance during these Games. At the closing ceremony on Sunday, one of the nation’s favourite bands – Naçao Zumbi – unveiled a banner reading “Fora Temer” (Temer Out). The Rio mayor, Eduardo Paes, was also jeered by the crowd, though he has done more than any other politician to push the Games through against the odds. He is expected to run in the future for state governor, and perhaps president of Brazil. But at the end of this year, he will be stand down as mayor and move to New York.

It is part of an exodus. Stadiums are being dismantled. Troops are returning to their barracks. IOC dignitaries are flying back to their Swiss mountain chalets. Galeão airport is packed with departing athletes, sports officials, and journalists. Foreign correspondents, most of them based here for the past few years, are also leaving in droves, many of them unlikely to be replaced as the world’s attention switches elsewhere.

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