Bach Defends Olympic Economic Model

(ATR) IOC President Thomas Bach says Rio 2016 is the best "stress test" to show the health of the Olympic Games.

Bach spoke to reporters on the eve of the Olympic opening ceremony defending the organization of Rio 2016. He said the Games’ future is bright especially because Brazil showed the ability to successfully navigate the challenges of hosting the Games. Rio’s feats, according to Bach, are more impressive given the myriad of external crises affecting Brazil.

"This [Games] model stood such a stress test in Brazil, so you can see this model is more than robust," Bach said to reporters.

"It was the worst crisis in the history of Brazil, and it is a state crisis, an economic crisis and a social crisis, and there were health challenges and environmental challenges, and wherever you look there were huge challenges. Nevertheless you see this country that this city and this Organizing Committee has managed to transform a city and to put Olympic Games on the stage."

Brazil is currently in the country’s worst recession, with the economy having shrunk nearly five percent in the past 18 months. On top of that, politically, the democratically elected President Dilma Rousseff has been suspended and faces a trial over the manipulation of the state’s budgets to mask an upcoming shortfall. Rousseff was suspended in May and the trial is expected to wrap up just after the Olympic Games are complete. Acting president Michel Temer remains deeply unpopular, like Rousseff, with his office reporting only a 14 percent approval rating.'

Closer to home, the Rio de Janeiro state declared a "state of public calamity," in order to receive federal funding to finance social services during the Olympic Games. In the months leading up to the games police officers and other state employees had not been paid because the state had run out of money.

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

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