Summer Olympics in Brazil: what to do

I would not go, even if given an all expenses paid trip.

However, in terms of when I was an athlete, although never an Olympics-level one, such a concerted effort and several months planning go into even a small competition that for me, it makes sense to have them. Whether they logistically can even be moved at this point might be in question, but if the Olympics were a democracy, I vote move them.

If someone dropped an all-expenses paid trip to Brazil in my lap, hell yeah, I'd go.

I wouldn't go. Mind you, I didn't go to the Vancouver Olympics.

Our head coach's daughter is currently ranked 3rd in the nation in the 200 backstroke. If she manages to squeak in 2nd place this month at Trials, she's going.

Wouldn't catch me there, but after watching how hard she's worked to get where she is, I get it.

I've run a couple of marathons -- I can appreciate how the athletes feel. They work incredibly hard. Moreover, their training is fine-tuned for a particular point in time. It is not the same thing to do the event a month later.

On the other hand, zika. horrific gang rapes. unrest. I wouldn't go. That's a lot of scary stuff, and the zika poses a threat beyond those who choose to attend.

I'm sure they'll go forward as planned. If it were at all possible to move them, though, I'd like to see it happen.

They can't move them -- just can't. There's no way to shift that level of shit in that little time, even discounting the insane amounts of money Brazil has poured into the games that they'd certainly want returned, and that no other venue is going to dispense to set up their own site (even a used one), in a couple months time. The airline ticketing alone, from all corners of the world, makes it likely untenable. The rest makes it surely so. The only thing they could do is cancel it and then what? Who refunds Brazil the money? What about the tickets and hotels for the world, booked in Rio? I think logistically cancelling could happen, but realistically won't, and probably shouldn't. Wear repellent? I mean... it's obviously not something anyone of child-bearing age or someone who's going to be sexually active with someone of child-bearing age wants to catch, but it's not like the 1918 flu.

I wouldn't go to Brazil regardless. Seems hot. I hate hot. I'd go to pretty much any winter games, anyplace. Summer, not so much.

Did they fix the contaminated water problem?

And ohhellno would I go to those games. But, to be fair, I don't like crowds and an all-expense paid trip to any Olympic Games would leave me sneaking off to see what else was to be seen in the vicinity.

I do, however, enjoy watching some of the competitions on television. I just don't like crowds much.

Completely understandable, given the past threads we have had about the IOC in my opinion. Unconscionable, but understandable.

There is no way in hell I would go. Has anyone mentioned how polluted the water will be where water events are being held? If I weren't on my phone, I'd paste some info, but these athletes will be getting sick. And I can't imagine a better way to spread Zika completely around the world than to have thousands of people flying in from many countries, expose them to Zika infected Mosquitos, then send them off back home to all parts of the globe. Lovely. I don't think the CDC knows as much about this virus as the think they do. Up until 2007, there were something like 14 documented cases. This Olympics could be a disaster. I feel so sorry for the athletes who have dreamed and worked and planned and sacrificed. And I'd like to let the committee who placed the games in Rio soak in the bacteria infested waters they're forcing the athletes in. This is seriously such a horrible idea.

Have these people NEVER played Pandemic 2?

The most effective way to get an early game boost is to have the Olympics be held in a country where your virus/bacteria/mind control worm/rogue nanotech/simian flu/zombie plague is already located.

Zoombie said:

Have these people NEVER played Pandemic 2?

The most effective way to get an early game boost is to have the Olympics be held in a country where your virus/bacteria/mind control worm/rogue nanotech/simian flu/zombie plague is already located.

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See????? I knew it!!!

Nope. Not going and wouldn't go if given a free ride. Not so much because of the Zika but because of safety issues.
I've been to one Olympics (winter) and loved it - but I knew ahead of time it would likely be safe. And there were a lot of cops everywhere.

What the IOC should do is have several permanent Olympic venues - the rotate them so each hosts an Olympics every 12 years.

Maybe the IOC is really just a cover for a sooper-sekrit organization whose ultimate goal is to spread pandemic so they can topple governments and take over the planet for their own nefarious means.


Not that I'm into conspiracy theories or anything...

c.e.lawson said:

Up until 2007, there were something like 14 documented cases.

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Quite a few since 2007 though, but they were mostly in places other than the Americas.

Slap on the DEET.

Alessandra Kelley said:

C. Probably not, but by now I am convinced that even were there a nuclear zombie apocalypse with flaming invaders from the Dimension of Fire the IOC would say that postponing or moving the Olympics would be terribly unfair to the athletes.

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See, the above things might even make the Olympics worth watching.

Although the Aussie media would still only show the flaming nuclear zombpocalypse event if there was a Australian zombie in it.

Albedo said:

See, the above things might even make the Olympics worth watching.

Although the Aussie media would still only show the flaming nuclear zombpocalypse event if there was a Australian zombie in it.

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I'd watch it if Roy & HG were commentating.

I might even buy a Fatso the Fat-arsed Zombie stuffed toy. Of course, it'd be very stuffed.

No, I wouldn't go. I'd rather see Brazil any other time. But I'm not the target market.

Helix said:

I'd watch it if Roy & HG were commentating.

I might even buy a Fatso the Fat-arsed Zombie stuffed toy. Of course, it'd be very stuffed.

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Heck yes! I'd watch Roy & HG commentating on anything. Their show, The Dream, was classic viewing - not just in Sydney, but later, in Salt Lake City and Athens.

Other than that, I really don't have much enthusiasm for the Olympics anymore. I wrote six reasons, then cut them out to save you the boredom.

Xelebes said:

I wouldn't go. Mind you, I didn't go to the Vancouver Olympics.

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Hey, I am there and I didn't go. Unless you're very interested in sport, it's a PITA locally. And we're a quiet, law-abiding (generally) country, and the Winter Olympics is never as much of a giant circus as the Summer Games.

raburrell said:

Our head coach's daughter is currently ranked 3rd in the nation in the 200 backstroke. If she manages to squeak in 2nd place this month at Trials, she's going.

Wouldn't catch me there, but after watching how hard she's worked to get where she is, I get it.

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Good luck to her on the day. I worked with the mother of a member of our national Water Polo team. She was so proud that they even got to the Games.

Albedo said:

See, the above things might even make the Olympics worth watching.

Although the Aussie media would still only show the flaming nuclear zombpocalypse event if there was a Australian zombie in it.

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And the Canadian media would only show it if a) a Canadian zombie was in it, and b) there was a lull in the previously scheduled 'major' events.

I had no plans to attend, Zika or no Zika. Last time I attended an Olympic event was in 1984, when they were in LA (and I was still living down in Southern CA during the summers).

Is postponement an option? What if they were pushed back a couple of years? Maybe by then we'll have a vaccine, or at least have a better understanding of which procedures reduce the risk of its spread.

But I honestly am not sure which approach is best. We still don't have a good idea what kind of threat this may be if some people contract the virus and travel to their various homes with it, and we don't (yet) have a vaccine or know for sure how to eliminate the risk of bites.

But cancellation, or even postponement, would screw over athletes who have worked and trained for this once in a lifetime opportunity, and it will cost Brazil all that money they've already sunk in building the various venues. Moving it would cause the same problem for Brazil, but at least it would give the athletes a chance to compete. But it's unprecedented to do this, isn't it, and who would be able to host them at such short notice?

So if postponement isn't an option, then I'm leaning towards holding them but being extremely draconian about protective clothing, bug spray, and so on.

But something tells me that attendance will be way lower than originally anticipated, and this may mean that Brazil will take an even bigger bath financially than hosting countries usually do.

cornflake said:

I wouldn't go to Brazil regardless. Seems hot. I hate hot. I'd go to pretty much any winter games, anyplace. Summer, not so much.

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Rio is below the equator, so our summer is actually their winter. So the Zika threat will be less at that time of year. Still, it's in the tropics, so I'm guessing it's going to be quite humid and warm year round.

Not only would postponement have the issues you mentioned - it'd also run into the next olympics, which would cause a host of other problems. There's 2018 in South Korea and 2020 in Tokyo.

I wonder about the transmission to other lands thing. I'm not doubting it, but the mosquitoes that currently carry Zika are, as I understand this, a particular strain. I heard a thing on NPR discussing local municipalities in Florida that had released plans to combat Zika, which included standard mosquito-fighting stuff like spraying over types of waterways. The expert being interviewed said the specific mosquitoes didn't breed or live in the same environments as ones we were more familiar with, and that using the familiar techniques to battle them was a waste.

Thus I'm not sure how easily it can spread from an area with the infected mosquitoes to one with other populations of insect - will it mutate in some way to be able to spread to those? Will those move?

Anyplace they're holding a summer olympics is too warm for me.