Rio 2016: Olympic Myths, Hard Realities

A clear-eyed, critical examination of the social, political, and economic costs of hosting the 2016 summer Olympics

The selection of Rio de Janeiro as the site of the summer 2016 Olympic Games set off jubilant celebrations in Brazil--and created enormous expectations for economic development and the advancement of Brazil as a major player on the world stage. Although the games were held without major incident, the economic, environmental, political, and social outcomes for Brazil ranged from disappointing to devastating. Corruption scandals trimmed the fat profits that many local real estate developers had envisioned, and the local government was driven into bankruptcy. At the other end of the economic spectrum, some 77,000 residents of Rio's poorest neighborhoods--the favelas--were evicted and forced to move, in many cases as far as 20 or 30 miles to the west. Hosting the games ultimately cost Brazil $20 billion, with little positive to show for the investment.

Rio 2016 assembles the views of leading experts on Brazil and the Olympics into a clear-eyed assessment of the impact of the games on Brazil in general and on the lives of Cariocas, as Rio's residents are known. Edited by sports economist Andrew Zimbalist, the other contributors include Juliana Barbassa, Jules Boykoff, Jamil Chade, Stephen Essex, Renata Latuf, and Theresa Williamson.

Author: Andrew Zimbalist
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Published: 09/12/2017
Pages: 270
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780815732457

Review Citation(s):
Choice 05/01/2018

About the Author

List of Contributors

Juliana Barbassa is an award-winning journalist and the managing editor of Americas Quarterly, a publication about politics and business in Latin America. She is also the author of Dancing with the Devil in the City of God: Rio de Janeiro on the Brink, based on her years as the Associated Press's Rio correspondent.

Jules Boykoff has written three books on the Olympic Games, most recently Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics. In fall 2015 he was a Fulbright research fellow in Rio de Janeiro. In the 1990s he represented the U.S. Olympic Soccer Team in international competition.

Jamil Chade is the European correspondent for the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo. Honored as the best Brazilian foreign correspondent, he was chosen as one of the forty most influential journalists in Brazil. A member of the network Anti-corruption Solutions and Knowledge (ASK), led by Transparency International, Chade has written four books and visited more than sixty countries.

Stephen Essex is associate professor in human geography at the School of Geography, Earth, and Environmental Science, Plymouth University (UK). His teaching and research focuses on urban and rural planning, especially the infrastructure implications of the Olympic Games. He has coauthored a number of journal articles and book chapters on the urban impacts and planning of both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games with Brian Chalkley (also at Plymouth University).

Renata Latuf is a Brazilian architect and urbanist based in São Paulo currently working on the urban design legacy of Rio Olympics. Supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation, she was a guest researcher in Copenhagen and England in 2016.

Theresa Williamson, a city planner, is the executive director of Catalytic Communities, a Rio de Janeiro-based organization that provides media and networking support to favela communities. An advocate on behalf of Rio de Janeiro's favelas, she helps to ensure they are recognized for their heritage status and their residents fully served as equal citizens.

Andrew Zimbalist is the Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College and a noted sports economist and sports industry consultant. He has published twenty-six books, most recently Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup and Unwinding Madness: What Went Wrong with College Sports and How to Fix It (with Gerald Gurney and Donna Lopiano.)