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Rio Mayor Says City Will Be Ready For Games, But Visitors Should Temper Expectations

Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes yesterday said that the city "will be ready" to host the Games next month but visitors "should moderate their expectations," according to Connors & Parkin of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Paes "sought to assure those planning to come to Brazil in August that a recent series of crises and embarrassing incidents in Rio won't mar" the Games and "declared Rio to be a 'transformed city.'" Paes: "People believe that either the Olympics solved all the problems of Brazil, or that it caused all the problems of Brazil. Neither is correct. We ask you to compare Rio with Rio." Rio Games Organizing Committee President Carlos Nuzman said, "All the competition areas are ready. It'll be a party that everyone will enjoy" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 7/6). In DC, Dom Phillips writes under the header, "Violence Rocks Rio A Month Before Olympics." Rio's violence is "deepening anguish and anger among residents, and it comes at a time when Rio's state government is broke and has slashed police budgets by a third" (WASHINGTON POST, 7/6).

CROSSTOWN TRAFFIC
: USA Track & Field CEO Max Siegel yesterday said the organization "realized logistics would be a problem" after a few visits to Rio. The AP's Eddie Pells noted USATF staff is "making it clear to the athletes that they need to build in plenty of time to make their way through the city." Siegel said that USATF is working with the USOC "on contingency plans in case traffic does end up as snarled as some predict." Siegel said Rio traffic is "one of our biggest concerns over things we don't have immediate control over" (AP, 7/5). Meanwhile, NBC Olympics President Gary Zenkel said the net has its "fingers crossed because the world can change on a dime." Zenkel said of the Zika threat, “It’s hard to remember a location or an Olympics where there wasn’t issues that concerned us, that concerned those who might travel and work in the local city. Zika is a scary, infectious disease. There are questions that haven’t been fully answered" (“Re/Code Decode with Kara Swisher,” RECODE.net, 7/4).

BEST BEHAVIOR: The GLOBE & MAIL's Cathal Kelly wrote Rio locals are "banging their metaphoric pots at the moment, but that will stop" as soon as the Opening Ceremony begins, as this is "where decorum takes over." It is "one thing to make fun of yourselves," but it is "less amusing to see yourself become a figure of ridicule in the global community." Kelly: "Will everything work? Probably not. That was the obvious sub-text of the recent announcement that organizers have run out of money -- 'Don't expect much.' I have visions of hitchhiking to the modern pentathlon." But that is "all behind the scenes." The Games will "look great" on TV, which is "all that matters." Kelly: "I am fully confident that Rio 2016 will be a wonderful success when viewed from the only perspective that matters -- your couch" (GLOBE & MAIL, 7/2). USA TODAY's Nancy Armour writes far from "elevating the world through sport, the upcoming Games have instead illustrated everything that's gone wrong with the Olympic movement." The Games will "leave a trail of broken promises" in Rio. Years after, Rio will "still be reeling" and maybe the "entire Olympic movement, too" (USA TODAY, 7/6). Vanessa Barbara in an op-ed for the N.Y. TIMES wrote the Games are a "man-made, foreseeable, preventable catastrophe." Barbara: "I went to Rio recently to see how preparations for the Games are going. Spoiler: not well" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/3). In N.Y, Bob Raissman dubbed USOC CEO Scott Blackmun his "Dweeb Of The Week" for being "largely unconcerned with mounting and troubling piles of issues" confronting the Games (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 7/3).

GOING TO A ROTATION OF SITES: NBC's Bob Costas said the notion that the IOC should go to a rotation of host sites for the Olympics is a "legitimate question" and is something he hopes to ask IOC President Thomas Bach during the Games. Costas said, "You could have a handful of semi-permanent sites. You wouldn’t have the crazy bidding and expenditures and whatnot. You would have to maintain those sites, but you would not have to build them from scratch. You could have some sort of coalition of nations that help with the maintenance and the upkeep and the security and that sort of thing and it might make more sense." He added, "If they fall into a situation where, because of the world’s situation both economy-wise, security-wise, where fewer and fewer cities are truly interested, then the idea of semi-permanent sites might have more resonance with them” ("Mike & Mike," ESPN Radio, 7/6).

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