In a Guardian story on Tuesday, International Olympic Committee vice president John Coates called Rio de Janeiro's prep for the 2016 Olympics "the worst" he's ever seen, and no, there is no Plan B.
Here's a list of everything Rio hasn't done, or isn't doing good enough:
- Construction hasn't begun on a number of venues (athletes have nowhere to go)
- Infrastructure is weak (athletes have no way to get there)
- Water quality is poor (athletes have nothing to drink)
This is, of course, the same city whose drug lords shot down a police helicopter with a bazooka two weeks after it was awarded the Games in 2009.
Rio's prep is so bad that Coates called it "worse than Athens," which is saying a lot. And then there are "social issues that need to be addressed," like the fact that the Brazilian Army has currently occupied Rio's shantytowns, or favelas, ahead of the World Cup.
The more immediate concern, of course, is when the World Cup rolls into town in June. But as every day slips away, Rio is looking more and more like an international mistake of goodwill.
[Photo: AP Images]