John Bauernfeind, a staff writer for SportsBusiness Daily, was in Rio with his family on behalf of BP, a USOC sponsor. He’s back in the U.S. now, and here are his final thoughts on the Rio Games.
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John Bauernfeind on the beach in Rio
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Although Rio’s struggles were pretty apparent, one could make accommodations to work around them. Traffic was usually unavoidable. A 25-minute drive once turned into a two-hour ordeal, with people, including this writer, jumping out of the car early and running into a shop, pleading with someone, anyone, to use their restroom.
But mapped out beforehand, the traffic issues could be managed, especially around Olympic Park.
Traffic did also seep into lines to get into venues, as well as the concessions at Olympic Park, which, late in the day in particular, were typically out of food. Not that it mattered all that much: A pizza, for instance, took up the same diameter as a closed fist. But fans were allowed to -- "did manage" may be a better way of putting it -- bring in some food if it was unopened. I even (accidentally) managed to bring a bottled water in one day.
Alas, not once did the venues or Olympic Park run out of beer. As the old saying goes, if you can’t eat your dinner, you may as well drink it.
Security -- probably Rio’s biggest concern before and during the Games -- wasn’t much of an issue for us, at least during daytime. It may get lost in translation when something happens, but Brazil is not a third-world country. People were not walking around in broad daylight loitering or fighting or looting. The language barrier was fairly significant, but folks were nice.
The hairiest moment I probably saw was this: Walking around in a local market, a shirtless area man approached my brother. “Estados Unidos?” he asked. The man then pointed at his stomach, which had “Thug Life” tattooed on it. “Estados Unidos,” he said, answering his own question.
The local man then placed his hand on my brother’s head and patted his hair. In some cultures (like Malaysia, for instance) blonde hair is considered good luck by those who touch it. I thought it was funny. Interactions with locals were otherwise kept at a minimum.
Admittedly, I stuck to the script and did not venture much outside of Olympic Park or the group we were with. To the dedicated twenty-something SBD reader, I offer my apologies. I did not experience (much of) Rio’s nightlife. There’s just some journalism better left untouched.
Everything else you should have seen on TV, and the Olympic events themselves appeared to go off mostly without a hitch. But at this point, with just a few days of competition left, how the Rio Games will be remembered is anyone’s guess.
