 |
Brazilian fans go crazy during the waning moments of the country's men's basketball victory over Spain.
|
Brazilian sports fans are haters, and that’s a good thing.
Rio 2016 organizers always promised a party, suggesting their lively, boisterous culture would give the Olympics a needed dose of energy. As it turns out, that boisterous approach to life isn’t limited to positivity, and maybe the Games needs to take the good with the bad.
In the first four days of the Games, the Carioca fans have earned a reputation for booing, jeering and side-taking on par that would make them feel at home in Philadelphia. They love an underdog and seem to take special joy in booing the U.S., and why not? The Americans are the New England Patriots of the Olympics. But Americans aren’t alone in being targets here. Brazilian fans will pick a side, seemingly arbitrarily at times, and make their preferences clear.
“Brazilian fans seem to be pretty egalitarian,” said British IOC spokesman Mark Adams. “They seem to be able to boo athletes from many countries. It’s quite difficult to work out why they might be booing one athlete and not another.”
The booing is not universally fun-loving. A lot of fans are booing the Russians out of a deeply held resentment over the doping scandal, and Australian, Canadian and American soccer players report troublesome anti-gay slurs from the crowds. That’s a different kettle of fish.
But the workaday boos here in Brazil are pretty innocent, like the sheepdog in the old cartoon who’s friends with the sheep during off hours. It wasn’t quite booing, but one American sports agent told me a group of Brazilians showed no preference whatsoever in a tennis match until they realized the Australians were outnumbered, and quickly rallied to cries of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!”
The booing is the opposite side of the coin everybody had hoped for in Brazil, the passion that was missed in London and Beijing. One sees the positive side, too. On Wednedsay, I was writing in the main press center when the closed volunteer break room exploded in loud cheers. Brazil had just won its first gold medal, and there heretofore quiet volunteers exclaimed loud and long. I couldn’t even have a conversation yesterday in the final minutes of Brazil’s one-point win over Spain at the main basketball arena.
Overall, these folks just really love being sports fans. That was part of the appeal of Brazil in the first place.
