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who's excited for the olympics?!?!

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
Rio had 2 existing golf courses and rather than fixing one of them up, they stole and destroyed protected public lands for a new course and luxury condos. None of the top golf players will be playing the course either.

http://www.ibtimes.com/rio-olympic-golf-problems-2016-capybaras-crocodiles-sloths-all-over-course-2397665

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/08/building-barra-rio-olympics-brazil/493697/

Only begrudgingly did Mauro concede that, since 2006, he had been trying to build a golf course in the Barra area to accompany a condo project. He had initially failed to obtain approval because much of the land, on the banks of Marapendi Lake, had been classified as an environmental protection area. With the Olympics’ impending arrival, the city council changed the area’s status in a lame-duck session at the end of 2012. Paes justified the decision by saying the area had already been “degraded” by a sand-mining operation. At the inauguration of the golf course, he stood triumphantly on the green. “Does this look like an environmental crime?” he asked. He neglected to mention that the operation had belonged to Mauro himself—one of the many businesses that the old tycoon had proudly listed off to me.

As is often the case in the mayor’s pronouncements, it’s hard to separate spin from fact. Rio already had two golf courses that could have been refurbished, but Paes said neither fit the requirements of the Olympic organizers. When he heard this, Thomas Bach, head of the International Olympic Committee, responded: “I’m a little surprised because as we all know, the mayor was pushing very much for this [new course] to happen.” While there is no official record of donations from Mauro to Paes, Mauro’s partner in the condo development adjacent to the golf course, a company known as Cyrela, gave around $300,000 to his reelection campaign in 2012.
 

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
40,942
13,135
Portland, OR
I can't see sh!t.

At least it isn't green anymore. :rofl:

“I could barely open my eyes for the final quarter,” said Tony Azevedo, the U.S. men’s water polo team captain after Team USA’s victory over France on Wednesday. “This is the Olympic Games and they are putting so much chlorine in the water that people can’t see. You can’t have that.”

Despite vocal complaints from both teams, Rio officials held a press conference Wednesday that told a very different story, maintaining that there is “absolutely no risk” and no ill effects. The reasoning for the color change, though, wasn’t clear. Mario Andrada, a Rio 2016 spokesman, noted that a lot of people had been in the pools, claiming that their presence had set off a chemical imbalance.