IOC officials on Wednesday said that "they were confident next year's Games in Rio de Janeiro would not be compromised by the political turmoil and economic downturn in Brazil," although preparations had "inevitably" been affected, according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. The Rio Olympics "have been plagued by delays for years" but, officials said that the "situation was improving." However, as preparations go into the final stretch, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff "is facing impeachment and the economy is in a tight spot." IOC VP Craig Reedie said, "It will inevitably affect the Games. There are challenges." Reedie said that "progress had been made" toward getting South America's first Olympics ready on time. Reedie: "There has been a massive improvement of the situation in the past months. That is good news" (REUTERS, 12/9). The AP reported Brazil's economy "was booming when Rio was awarded the games" in '09, but the country "is now in its worst recession since the 1930s." Rio organizers are trying to cut R$2B ($530M), "or almost 30%," from their operating budget of R$7.4B ($1.9B). Rio Organizing Committee President Carlos Nuzman said, "We are in a moment where we need to adjust everything. This is normal. All the games are the same. We need to adjust everything and we are doing this with the IOC, the international federations and the NOCs (national Olympic committees). I think the most important thing is that nothing is affected for the athletes, that nothing affects the organization of the games" (AP, 12/9).
