IOC Says Brazil President Dilma Rousseff's Departure Won't Affect Rio Games

The IOC said that preparations for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, which begin in less than three months, "will not be affected by the Brazilian senate's vote to put President Dilma Rousseff on trial," according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. The first South American city to host the Olympics "has been racing to get ready" in the face of "political turmoil, health scares and the country's worst recession since the 1930s." IOC President Thomas Bach said, "Preparations for the Olympic Games have now entered into a very operational phase and issues such as these have much less influence than at other stages of organizing the Olympic Games." Brazil's Senate voted on Thursday "to put leftist Rousseff on trial." The historic decision "follows the recession and a massive corruption scandal that will now confront her successor," centrist VP Michel Temer. Federal investigators said recently that "they were probing alleged corruption in Olympic projects" (REUTERS, 5/12).