For the months and weeks leading up to the Rio Summer Games, constant stories brewed about the lack of preparation, the eviction of thousands of Rio residents and the Zika virus potentially harming athletes and spectators. But for two weeks, the world once again marveled at the amazing achievements of the world's best athletes.
We forgot again, as we did in Sochi and Beijing, that the Games had been a costly burden to the people that saw the arenas and complexes rise from the ground.
No doubt, these were amazing Olympics. I watched more events than ever before.
We marveled at the Olympic legends of Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt sailing into the sunset in victory. We saw dominating performances from U.S. Swimmer Katie Ledecky, Kenyan marathoner Eliud Kipchoge, the USA Basketball teams and a Swedish mountain biker Jenny Rissveds. We saw first-time Olympians and Olympic veterans become overwhelmed with emotion on the medal stand.
There were close races, heartbreaks and triumphs, and ultimately winners and losers.
In the end after the medals are distributed, the spotlight will leave Brazil and move on to Japan for Tokyo in 2020. Most of the world will forget the estimated 77,000 Rio residents (Huffington Post) evicted from their homes, the interim Brazilian President who is filling in for a corrupt predecessor, the Zika exposure that many athletes may have received and the massive recession and budget crisis the country still faces.
This story makes me sound like an Olympics hater, and I am far from it. But the Olympic tenet of "peace, friendship and progress" is rather strange considering the way the Olympics are handled in the host country. Around 918 medals were given out at these Rio 2016 games, but millions of Rio residents will have to deal with the consequence of being left with broken promises.
Rio will still face a budget crisis, a floundering President, awful housing, third-world public utilities and polluted waters. The world has big problems as a whole. Refugees, terrorism, leadership changes and conflict will be in the headlines in the coming months. However, what shouldn't change is our love for the least of these, those who have no voice.
The residents were promised that they would see "A New World" (Rio's Olympics motto) when the Olympics came to town, but instead saw corruption at the highest level and their voices silenced.
Though the solutions to these large problems are complex and will take a long time to mature, the prevalence of them remains.
When these problems are met with caring for the silenced, the Olympic tenet may make more sense. And the motto of "Faster, Higher, Stronger" might get a new word: together.
