The price list for the Olympic Games was steep enough to make even a sports minister blush. Well, almost.
Base Olympic ticket: 400 Reals (about R2 000). Hamburger: 18 Reals. Beer: 10 Reals.
There were many who rightly observed that Rio 2016 was one of the emptier Olympic Games in recent memory, with residents apparently not interested in joining in the party in their backyard.
While the stadiums were seldom packed, that assessment of the locals couldn’t be further from the truth.
Being part of the Olympic experience would have cost the man on the streets of Rio a chunk of change that was simply too great to part with.
And so, left with few options, they watched from a distance, visitors in their own neighbourhood.
It was awkward, because the Olympics traditionally breathe off the energy supplied by a local passion that envelops the whole thing for months.
But this was the first Olympic Games to be hosted in slums.
Of course, Copacabana is the jewel in the Brazilian crown, but several other venues were in the heart of the favelas.
They took the greatest show on earth into a township and didn’t bother to throw the locals a bone.
No “special local price”, not even a schoolchildren’s discount.
Four hundred Reals, the base fare for most of the major events in Rio, is enough to feed a young family for a month and pay for their transport on buses and trains.
So paying 400 Reals, and infinitely beyond, to get a taste of the Olympics vibe was simply out of the question.
For an event that will never, ever return to Rio, that is a travesty.
The International Olympic Committee will look back on Rio 2016 as the gamble that paid off, the budget party with huge spin-offs, thanks to the lavish fees from American prime-time TV, and a rash of sponsors whose products took pride of place throughout Olympicville.
But they could just as easily have left Rio and its Cariocas, the natives, beaming for a long time at playing a significant role in adding to the flavour and atmosphere of the Games.
Rio was raw, especially on the streets. Rio was riotous, especially when Brazil finally landed their very first gold medal for men’s football.
With a bit more thought, however, Rio could have been revolutionary, respectful, even, because it would have been one of the few Games editions with a social conscience.
For all the inflated price tags floating all over Rio for the Olympic month, that single gesture would have been priceless.
– The Sunday Independent