Rio 2016: The Games Beyond the Headlines

Zika, water quality and a country in crisis dominated the run-up. What happened inside the Games, and after them, offers Los Angeles a lesson in planning for the day after.

By: Richard Awni, Senior Olympic and Sports Correspondent

Family First News Desk | Where Sports and Education Go Hand in Hand

Rio de Janeiro during the 2016 Olympic Games, where competition and community often told a fuller story than the pre-Games headlines

Olympic venue and spectators in Rio de Janeiro during the 2016 Summer Games.

The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro were the first Games ever held in South America. They ran from August 5 to August 21, 2016, and they arrived with more doubt attached than almost any Games in recent memory.

The headlines before the opening ceremony were about the Zika virus, the water quality in Guanabara Bay, and a Brazil in the middle of a deep economic and political crisis. Many people expected the worst.

The Games went ahead, and the competition delivered. Michael Phelps added five gold medals to his record. Simone Biles won four golds in gymnastics. Usain Bolt completed his run of Olympic sprint titles. The United States led the medal table with 46 gold medals and 121 medals overall.

The athletes did what they always do. They made the Games bigger than the headlines.

The harder questions came after the closing ceremony. Cities that host the Olympics inherit the buildings, the debts and the expectations. Rio’s experience, widely discussed in the years since, became a case study in what happens when an Olympic city has a plan for the Games but not a full plan for the day after.

That is the lesson Los Angeles should take from Rio. LA28 has chosen to use existing venues rather than build new permanent ones, which is one answer to the question of what to do with a stadium when the cameras leave. It is not the only answer.

A city also needs a plan for people: for the coaches, the young athletes and the neighborhoods that were promised a legacy. In 1984 Los Angeles answered that question by setting aside part of its surplus for youth sports before the Games began. In 2028 it should be just as specific.

Rio showed that the Games can rise above the headlines. The next question is what they leave behind once the headlines move on.

Disclosure: Family First Foundation publishes Family First News Desk and runs youth sports and education programs in Los Angeles. Richard Awni is the Foundation’s founder.