Rio still struggles with litany of problems through first week

Rows of empty seats, green water, controlled explosions, stray bullets, the killing of a young policeman in a favela, muggings of team officials, an attack on a media bus, spotty weather, snarled traffic, long travel distances and lack of a Carnival atmosphere.
Halfway through the Olympics, Rio de Janeiro is still struggling with a litany of problems that have underlined the challenges of taking the games away from their traditional territories, and made clear they may not go to untested regions again in the near future.
The athletes and sports competitions have risen to the occasion, the Brazilians have been welcoming and friendly, and TV pictures beamed around the world have featured Rio’s beautiful scenery and backdrops at their best.
Overall, though, Olympic officials and veterans say Rio has been beset by so many organizational issues that South America’s first games have been more of a disappointment than a delight.
“It has been along the lines of what experienced Olympic observers and organizers would have expected,” said Dick Pound, the IOC’s longest-serving member, in an interview with The Associated Press. “Then you add the political and corruption issues, and they didn’t have a chance to get everything done the way they would have liked to.”
IOC vice president John Coates told the BBC: “This has been the most difficult games we have ever encountered.”
Seven years ago, the International Olympic Committee selected Rio over Madrid, Tokyo and Chicago as the 2016 host city. Rio won because IOC members were convinced the time had come to go to South America. Back then, Brazil was a rising economic and political star on the world stage.
Today, Brazil is mired in a crippling recession, its suspended president is facing impeachment, and many politicians and business leaders are locked up in a massive corruption scandal. Budget cuts and cash flow problems forced Olympic organizers to scale back.
“There were two or three other candidates in that [2016] race that would have done a much better job,” Pound said. “There is a reason the games haven’t been held here before. Every day is a challenge.”
In many parts of Rio, it’s hard to tell the city is hosting the Olympics. Dressing up the venues with the “look of the games” branding — logos, banners and other designs — has fallen short after a Ukrainian supplier failed to deliver.
“The good part is that the Brazilian fans are great and the Brazilian people are as helpful as can be,” Olympic historian David Wallechinsky told the AP. “The negative part is they are simply not prepared. They had seven years. They should have been able to get it together. They just didn’t.”
Wallechinsky, who is attending his 17th Olympics, added: “The negative part combines the last-­minute preparedness of Athens 2004 with the incompetence of the organizers of Atlanta 1996 — the worst of the two.”
Rio organizers remain publicly upbeat.
“We need to finish what we have started,” Rio organizing committee spokesman Mario Andrada said Saturday. “I’ll be glad to come to you after the games and give you a full detailed report on everything we did well and everything that we did wrong. But we have a lot of celebrate.”
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said: “I think we’ll look back on these games as being a really good thing for the Olympic movement.”
The games have gone forward without any major disruption. Security is tight throughout the city, and more than a dozen Brazilians have been arrested after declaring loyalty to Islamic State. Stephen Wilson, AP