Day 19-20: Rio to E-ville and 2016 Olympics Observations
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| Not quite 60 at 10am |
Weather: Cool
and raining in Rio, awesome in E-ville (cool and not raining and not humid)
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| High tides, big surf and lots of wind |
QOTD: What a great song to end with for the
Quotes Of The Day, as THB walks along the beach in the morning, in the rain
On the way back Tall and tan and young and lovely
The girl from ipanema goes walking
And when she passes, I smile but she doesn't see
Por causa do amor
She just doesn't see
Nem olha para mim
She never sees me
Por causa do amor
Breakfast same-same. A walk along Ipanema Beach where sand
has been swept off the beach and on to the sidewalk and bike/jogging path and
street. Guess the wind and rain and high tides had their own synchronized event
last night.
Lunch at Stambul with R; DA and THB walked by Stambul daily,
sometimes two or three times. It was always full. Today, R and I have the place
practically to ourselves at 12:30, only locals left roaming the hood. Share a
mix of rice, garbanzo beans, lentils, large amount of shredded chicken and bits
of hamburger. With waters and lemonade, $20 for THB.
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| As my cab whizzed along, the other side of the freeway was at a standstill and hawkers were walking in between the lanes; maybe they have an app on their phones that tells them when to hit the highway |
Taxi to the airport, the cabbie uses a voice recognition app
on his phone to confirm THB is going out of the international airport, $30.
Easy ride, THB has planned in plenty of time, arriving 7 hours early (gosh,
that must be a typo). Was THB going to relax in the apartment instead of the
GOL VIP lounge?
Delta opens for boarding passes at 4pm; while waiting THB
does some people watching and reading (the latter pretty much a first during
the O’s, we’ve been on the go, attending events or sleeping the rest of the
time). It takes an hour to get through security (where for the second time in a
month the international side of security took away THB’s deadly nail file) and
to the VIP lounge.
The lounge is full of French athletes and support types and
some Americans, looks like three athletes are sitting just to my right chatting
and gossiping away.
Book Review #1: Brazillionaires: Wealth, Power, Decadence, and Hope in an
American Country, Alex Cuadros: If you have any interest in Brazil (which,
after 19 posts, THB hopes you have some), are going to Brazil or have been to
Brazil, you’ll like this expose of the top .00001%. THB is both happy and sad
he didn’t read much of it before spending 3 weeks in Rio: it would both have
really informed much of what was seen (other than the actual events) and been
very depressing. There’s even a reference equating D. Trump to one of the
personalities covered by Cuadros. Highly
Recommended
Book Review #2: The Dig, John Preston (novel): fast read based on true events in mid-summer 1939 England when a local estate owner decides to have burial mounds investigated. Recommended
The 2016 Olympics are over and the net of it is:
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There’s
nothing like 20 days of World Championships going on at the same time, every O
is a special sports event and Rio was no different
- KB
was missed, sometimes significantly so, and DA was a wonderful volunteer stand-in
(the one volunteer who knew what his task was and exceeded expectations). How could two older men not run out of
things to say to each other in 3 weeks? Somehow, we didn’t. Maybe we’re really millennial metrosexuals?
-
Our
apartment was lovely and perfect: great functionality, good TV, easy food
shopping nearby, not a single problem (well, for a few minutes the TV failed
and DA switched plugs around and got it going again…if only the sound had gone
out and left the picture, we would never have noticed), convenient to a very
nice metro station, a few blocks from gorgeous beaches, reasonably priced, and
our rent-coordinator very accessible and helpful
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| General Osirio station mural |
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| Express bus, one of the post-O's gain for locals |
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| New metro cars |
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| Old train cars: this one left the station with the doors open |
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| Inside of cars cut down on seats, emphasize standing room and a/c works great (THB thinks this style was first used in Toronto) |
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Every
host city struggles to get ready and all eventually overcome the struggles for
3 weeks; it appears that Rio has upgraded its infrastructure in ways THB can’t
see and yet can tell they are significant: a revitalized downtown, express bus
lanes, a new metro line, new light rail line; all will help the Cariocas in the
short and long run
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| Even though 10s of thousands of people are walking past the torch, most just keep on walking (why is THB carrying a purse?) |
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Putting
the O torch in a common location (i.e., revitalized downtown and not at O
Stadium) was a major local success story. Maybe it will become an O tradition
(Rio to Tokyo: are you listening?)
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The
USA women are studs (okay, not exactly right) and it appears that Title IX has
a ton to do with it. Another program that after many years is paying dividends
(think Head Start). Isn’t equality a great thing!!!! And, for you throwback men
watching Women’s Beach Volleyball, High Jump and Pole Vault, how about those
close-ups of women in bikini bottoms?
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| Our first trip in the elevator to the fifth level |
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| The change to the elevator buttons mid-stream |
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And,
the standard one: it takes 6-10 days into the games to figure out how to
optimize the O experience, and by that time it is too late to do much to change
it. THB buys most of his tickets 16 months ahead of time. He books his flights
9 months ahead of time and sets up his accommodations anywhere from 6 years
ahead of time (London) to 9 or so months ahead of time (in Rio, THB booked the
apartment 1 year before the games, about the norm). His original O partner
dropped out with 8 months or so to go so not enough time to adjust the plans as
set. Rio opened its final major transportation link to the Games 4 days before the Games started. Even
without optimization, it is an amazing experience.
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| If an OR is set, often the athlete will get a pic with one of the field level displays; Eaton's turn! |
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| A huge moment at T&F: World Record by young S. African |
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| One of the few events the USA women didn't win, though they had 3 of top six finishers (guess who won the 4x400M relay?) |
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| Taylor and Claye go 1-2, their first jumps were the longest. After the event, Claye proposed to his girlfriend (another top US woman who couldn't make the team it was such a strong field) and she accepted |
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| Jager ran a great race, took an OR to beat him; note the gap to 3rd place |
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The
top events: a tie between Matt Centrowitz going Gold in the 1500M and Wayde Van Niekerk
breaking Michael Johnson’s 400M record (an event THB also saw, 20 years ago).
If either the USA M’s or W’s VB teams had won Gold, that would also be up
there. Bronze does not get you a top O’s event medal. If Mayer had upset Ashton
Eaton in the Decathlon while setting an OR, that also would’ve made the top 3.
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| Lead pretty much the whole way: slow first 3 laps and a blazing last 400M; first win in 1500M for USA in 108 years |
THB (dis)qualifier: These observations are idiosyncratic,
one dedicated O attendee who gets myopic in the extreme. Some of the comments
will be absurdly incorrect if seen in a larger context. To THB, it’s
fictionalized truth telling. And, for most part, often experienced while on
sleep deprecation….er, deprivation.
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| Ayana sets world record and leads top 8 finishers to personal bests, national records, area records |
Observations
Host Bump: The host country usually roars up a
sizable medal count, using the 6 years before the Games to find, tutor, and
groom athletes into peak shape during their big moments on the world stage. Seems
like Brazil skipped a step or two. The numbers behind the fiction:
2008: USA 110, China 100, Russia 71, GBR
47, Brazil 16
2012: USA 103, China 88, Russia 77, GBR 65,
Brazil 17
2016: USA 121, China 70, Russia 56, GBR
67, Brazil 19
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| One of Brazil's Gold, in Men's VB |
Looks like China is suffering a post-Beijing decline (THB
thinks drug controls have a lot to do with this stat), Russia lost 20 medals or
so in 2016 with drug controls, GBR did something right in getting ready for
London and Rio, and Brazil and USA are in the range of expectations when not
hosting (USA got a bump from Russia track and field exclusion and the
continuing improvement of USA women who by themselves are out-medaling most
countries).
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| Calatrava's Museu do Tomorrow |
Rio Olympics: Four years at THB’s age is getting to
be a long time. London? What the hell happened in London? So, comparisons are
growing weaker in actuality and maybe a bit less emphatic (or should be) than
in previous comparisons of O’s. The big thing: T&F was not the main focus
of the Olympic Park. In fact, in Rio T&F was nowhere near the main park.
The Olympic Park was missing a lot of the amenities of just hanging out between
events (like umbrellas to get THB out of the sun). The food at the venues was a
disaster: poor quality, longgggggg lines to pay, no sense of what you were
ordering (“pasta”) when you paid, that is if you could get to the front of the
line to pay. Keeping water and coke bottle lids for “security” reasons (while
letting people holding beers walk through security as long as the beer was in a
cup). Adding mobile Caixas was a terrific idea to alleviate the problem
somewhat.
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| Local sports |
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| Just one move of his "routine" |
The Games were terrific, as always. Putting on a world
championship in every sport (actually, there are a lot of “sports” in the O’s
that do not meet THB’s definition of sports, e.g., anything with “synchronized”
its name) ever devised in the same 16 day timeframe ain’t easy. Because it’s
“the world” and also because the host automatically gets a team in every sport,
sometimes the matches are very lopsided. It is part of the charm: not quite
everyone wins a medal, more like everyone is blessed to be competing, and
that’s enough because it is special for the contestants. However, the idiosyncrasies of the Brazilians
(as hosts) in treating competitors with extreme disdain seemed out of place (to
THB, not the Brazilians).
It was very nice that Rio did not drown the visitors in Team
London and Team GBR style crap that pervaded the London O’s. THB could have
used a few more different t-shirt choices (how’s that for quibbling, THB
complaining about “fashion” options). Basically it was the Rio O’s and the
Brazilian teams were left to compete on their own (with very rabid fans). Also,
the local TV coverage was awesome: non-stop events all over the spectrum of
sports, with the sound off (all in Portuguese, some we heard of dubbed into
Portuguese!).
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| Tap in |
Transportation was an issue in that there were never actual
humans in the right spots to help with directions, and if there were they did
not speak English very often or did not know the answers (worse, some gave
wrong answers). Charging for the metro broke from the way Beijing and London handled
the hordes to make it easy to get in and out of the stations (by just showing
your event ticket for the day). Charging was okay because foreigners should
help to defer costs; better would have been dedicating lanes to those holding
the O metro passes and letting us flow through rather than “tapping” in which
was very slow and created lots of congestion and continual anxiety (will my
card work?). That is, if you knew where to tap as they used several different
turnstile mechanisms.
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| New light rail downtown |
And, of course, the other issue with transportation was how
far the O Park and O Stadium were from the other venues and major residential
neighborhoods. This is pretty typical of many O’s. Here, if you wanted to be
near the T&F stadium, you give up something else, like being near any other
event! This was not a Rio problem: THB might have been able to figure it out
ahead of time, especially if he came to Rio before booking his apartment and
scoped it out himself. THB is pretty sure there were not many locals who
understood his unique requirements (you know, for things like sleep and more
sleep and decent food choices).
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| The biggest security risk in Rio |
Halfway through the Games, THB figured out where to stay to
minimize daily travel times: the small upscale area in the triangle between
Maracana stadium (Volleyball), O stadium (T&F) and the bus station where
you could get a 30 minute express ride to the O Park. Overall, that triangle is not an upscale part
of town. Even now, it’s not clear how to have found a two bedroom apartment in
a safe neighborhood for two guys wandering around in the early mornings (in
both senses: after midnight and before 8am). Plus, way back in 2015, THB was
planning on attending with KB and possibly our spouses; that made Copacabana
and Ipanema the only choices.
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| The fastest man on any planet |
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| Adept with two phones, while the action was taking place |
Weather: Usually extremely pleasant in the
beach communities to hot at times in the “inland” locations. The rain at the O
Stadium was an oddity for the summer O’s, though it did occur in Sydney as
well. Overall, about as nice as it could be.
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| Volunteer takes our pic; it rained a few times and, except for the last day, it was always warm out |
Rio: Safe to very safe, which is pretty
typical of the O’s because there is so much police or military out in public
and fierce publicity about putting on a good face for the city starting months
and months ahead of the Games. THB got very used to going around with a copy if
his passport, a few hee-ayes, a piece of paper with his apartment address and
some phone numbers, and a credit card: no wallet!
And, health wise, while we didn’t see any mosquitos, nor many
bugs (fewer than 15?) and very few birds (other than pigeons and sea gulls) either, Zika is
still a big thing here. The woman that rented the apartment to us said that three of
her pregnant friends decided to leave the country to finish out their
pregnancies. So, the locals sure take infection seriously. The locals, who have
been scarred and afraid of crime (rightly so, their personal stories are very
scary), never quite caught on that the O’s dramatically suppress crime (other
than those by the athletes and officials themselves). We never felt threatened
and in only a few instances when wandering around by ourselves did it even
cross our minds. Accidentally falling off the train into a gap was a much more
common worry.
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| Mo trains with Salazar, goes double Gold again; Rupp won a medal in the Marathon, this race was his warm-up! |
Rio is a city that has a lot of beaches and maybe not all
that much else to offer. We did not hit
two of the major attractions: Sugar Loaf or The Redeemer mountain views. The
food was not what we would call gourmet (no, THB is not using the food at the
venues as part of this evaluation). Casual dining and lots of food served seems
to be pretty standard. Buffets and frying showed up a lot, along with plenty of
salt.
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| The biggest actual security risk: a "balloon" floats into the stadium |
Cariocas: What the people in Rio are called. Very
generous to older or disabled people on the metro (do DA and THB look old and
infirm? In the Rio metro and trains we do). At times, THB struggled with the
cultural norms. Standing for long periods in lines appears to be accepted: to
pay cashiers for food at the venues, to buy daily (?) metro tickets instead of
using longer passes (this was truly baffling: why wouldn’t the locals buy more
than one metro ticket at a time when the lines were so long), to buy food at
the market where even the simplest tasks take forever, buying metro cards by
the each at the machines (rather than putting in a multiplier), buying metro
cards from people selling 1 or 3 or 7 day cards and their inability to make
change, the slowness of the security staff (or the lack of timeliness in
opening the lines) created huge delays in getting into the O Stadium; it was
generally much better at VB and okay to very good at O Park.
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| Where was everyone? |
THB told DA it was his bad line karma carrying over, then we
decided it was just okay with the Cariocas that things take forever. Lots of
them needed to be told about what was okay to bring into the events and what
wasn’t allowed. We surmised that efficiency is not high on the list of admired
attributes.
And, how about those empty seats? Many Brazilians showed up
well after the start times of the events (maybe because many of they were not
used to using public transportation). At first, THB thought they were stuck in
security and then decided that they didn’t really have any interest in the
event they were attending unless Brazil was participating. Still, it was a
once-in-a-lifetime event and you’d think seeing all of it was somehow
important.
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| In a do-over, this is the hood where DA and THB should've stayed (and not where KB and THB should've stayed) |
Even in tourist meccas, there was an absence of English and
Spanish. Not that the Brazilians should speak either of these languages; however,
when they don’t it makes them unique around the world for tourists (and, it
appears, THB is determined to spend more time around the world than at home
this year….please, no invitations to Bali, the Black Sea, Malta, Karachay-Cherkessia or the
Aleutians until 2017).
Volunteers: Volunteers were universally
under-utilized. Hordes of them standing around. Many waving finger-pointing
signs with no idea of what they were doing. Almost every “fork in the road” was
unstaffed with nobody around telling people what to do or expect (and signage
at forks was non-existent). Nobody explaining in front of security that you
couldn’t bring in liquids. Nobody trained on anything. A fair number spoke
English, they still couldn’t answer basic questions. Zero seat control, so we
started about halfway through to go native and take advantage of the vast
emptiness at most events. We only got bumped once, at Men’s VB Bronze match.
We read on-line that something like 10-15K volunteers quit
after a week or so because of the long work hours and inadequate food. If the
people attending the Rio Games used that criteria there would be nobody in the
stands. Sorry, bad joke.
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| Bolt would only have gotten louder cheers if he was Brazilian |
The foreigners seemed to care that they were in the proper
seats; it seemed that none of the Brazilians did. THB and DA (arbitrarily)
decided that the local custom is not to tell someone what to do, even if that
is your “job”. Clearing aisles of people was not a responsibility taken
seriously, even if the offenders were blocking others views. In fact, standing
up to watch a key moment (Bolt running in the 100) was frowned upon.
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| One of our two fancy meals; neither place spoke any English (each did have an English menu) |
And the booing: gosh, okay, they do that in Brazil. THB
learned Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi in Sydney. Somehow booing non-Brazilians
seemed crass. Loudly booing, not just casual booing. At VB it became really
noticeable: any non-Brazilian getting ready to serve was booed unmercifully. They started making public announcements at T&F about respecting the fans. THB
thinks that was only done in English. At VB they made announcements a number of
times in English about no flash photography; never in Portuguese! Hmmmm, DA
thought maybe they knew the locals didn’t have cameras with flash? They sure
had smart phones…and managed to use them continually instead of watching the
events (THB is guessing that it was true for many foreigners as well).
Southern hemisphere: The “wave” is done backwards
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| Only US folks wore their tickets; someone found a Rio 2016 plastic holder (we looked, not for sale at venues) which cleverly covered up the actual seat location |
Scalping/tickets: almost no scalping. Nearing the end
of the O’s, there were people offering tickets for sale. We don’t think we saw
anyone holding up a sign to purchase though there were a few that seemed to
want to trade tickets. Local custom or laws? There were of course many tickets
still up for sale, and the ticket lines took forever, even when we were 3rd
in line. Ticket staff usually did not know about using a phone app that allows
you to tap the phone on the credit card device to finalize payment without
getting your credit card out.
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