Rio Olympics Prevail Despite Problems -- Media Watch

(ATR) The Rio 2016 Olympics are being viewed as a mild success despite major concerns that plagued the organizing committee in the lead up to the world's biggest sporting event.

Reviews of the Games are beginning to roll in from global media outlets that tend to agree the Olympics were largely unaffected by negative media reports about the Zika virus, water pollution, political turmoil and venue and infrastructure construction delays.

A survey recently revealed that tourists approved their trip to Rio, but criticized Olympic prices, reports Globo.

The Ministry of Tourism in Brazil assembled the survey and discovered 87.7% of foreigners said they want to return to the country.

Now that the Olympics are gone, Jonathan Levin for the Chicago Tribune questions whether security in Rio will remain stable or if the city will regress back to high crime rates and a receding economy.

"The massive investment in infrastructure and the hospitality industry that helped blunt the local effect of Brazil's rising unemployment is finished," Levin says. "The 85,000 soldiers and police who flooded Rio to safeguard the sporting event will eventually return to their usual posts," he says, but not until the Paralympics have finished in September.

Chris McLaughlin for BBC Sport analyzes the impact of each of the issues that caused major concerns for spectators and athletes alike.

McLaughlin says the empty seats in the venues ended up being a larger concern than the multitude of issues surrounding the Games.

"Overall, there is a feeling organizers could have done more," says McLaughlin. "The price of a daily ticket, for example, was the equivalent of a half a week's wage for the average worker who lives in a favela."

CNN reporter Danielle Rossingh calls the Rio Olympics the most difficult Games in recent history after speaking to sports management and research experts who say the experience may lead to the IOC picking safer options as host cities in the future.

"What they want is something which will be a lot closer to their brand values and a lot safer for their sponsors," head of Sheffield Hallam University’s Sports Industry Research Center Simon Shibli said. "[The Rio Olympics have] not been an unqualified success."

David Wharton of the Los Angeles Times says the torrential downpour during the closing ceremony was indicative of the city’s resilience to host the Games despite a bevy of issues surrounding the country.

"It was all part of the IOC’s gamble in coming to South America for the first time," Wharton writes. "The samba dancers and pop musicians who soldiered through Sunday’s inclement weather, and the fireworks that illuminated the gloomy sky at the end, embodied the host city’s determination."

Leaders in Brazil will provide their own review of the Rio Games on Tuesday with a press conference featuring Mayor Eduardo Paes and Brazil’s Presidential chief of staff Eliseu Padilha.

Compiled by Kevin Nutley

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