He is an incisive, humane observer, and he argued that critics have the Rio Olympics all wrong. Earlier this year, the scion of the nation’s largest construction companies, Odebrecht, an investor in the athletes’ housing, was sentenced to 19 years in prison for his role in another political scandal. The Rio Olympics do offer nods toward a sustainable future. What if the IOC instead had awarded Rio de Janeiro three cycles of Olympics: 2016, 2020 and 2024? City officials would have time to learn and grow, to ride out a bad recession and market Rio as a true Olympic city.

Source: National Post August 24, 2016 16:18 UTC