Brazil's government "sounded the alarm Saturday over meager sales of Olympic tickets and public apathy just five months before Rio hosts South America's first Summer Games." With "worries about the Zika virus, high crime and a major political crisis already overshadowing the August 5 opening ceremony, Brazil now faces the embarrassing prospect of empty stadiums." Rio 2016 organizing committee spokesperson Phil Wilkinson said that only 50% of tickets to the Olympics "have sold so far." For the Paralympics, which follow the main Games, "the figure is far worse:" just 12%. Ricardo Leyser, who this week replaced George Hilton as Brazil's minister of sport, said that "he was working on a plan to boost purchases -- as well as to stir up more excitement among Brazilians" (AFP, 4/2).
Liberia might not send athletes to the Rio Olympics because of "lack of cash and fears about the Zika virus, according to a letter from the finance ministry." Liberia has "never won" an Olympic Medal, and planned to send around 20 people to the games, about half of them athletes. If Liberia does indeed decide not to go to Rio, "it would be the first country to decline to attend on the grounds of the Zika outbreak in Brazil" (REUTERS, 4/1).
