Dhe gate is not locked, the little guard house next to it is orphaned. To do this, circle over the Olympiapark in the district of Barra da Tijuca a few hungry birds of prey. From the air you have the best overview of where something can still be found on the huge area. They had promised Rio de Janeiro blooming landscapes back then, on the day on which the city on the Sugar Loaf finally drew new hope of escaping the seemingly eternal cycle of poverty and lack of prospects.
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That day was now more than twelve years ago. It was a day in October 2009 when the Brazilian metropolis won the bid for the 2016 Olympic Games. The then President Lula da Silva (2003-2011) was the driving force behind the Olympic bid as well as the coup to bring the 2014 World Cup to the country of the five-time world champion. In a photo showing the victorious Olympic applicants, Lula triumphantly holds up her winning fist. With the other hand he is holding the Brazilian national flag. In addition to Lula, OK boss Carlos Arthur Nuzman and Governor Sérgio Cabral are also cheering in the picture – both have now been sentenced to long prison terms for corruption.
For Brazil and Rio de Janeiro, the World Cup and the Olympics were to become the ticket to the political and urban world leaders. And a political monument for Lula. This dream was fed by huge oil discoveries off the coast of the country, an agricultural industry that was fattened by enormous gains in land after years of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, and a construction industry that knew no scruples. “We are no longer an underdeveloped country. We are a leading economic nation, ”Lula said confidently. At that time, economic growth based on fossil fuels and highly industrial agriculture was still internationally accepted. Lula’s dream of becoming the best in the world was a historical misjudgment – economically, politically and athletically.
“I have traveled to Africa 34 times”
It is now more than five and seven years respectively behind the two major events with which Lula completely overwhelmed his home country and opened the door to a wild orgy of corruption. In the decisive vote, Rio de Janeiro beat the Spanish capital Madrid by 66 to 32 votes. Lula blamed the support of the African states for the triumph. “I have traveled to Africa 34 times, visited 29 countries and opened 19 embassies in Africa,” the president calculated, praising himself above all. Brazil had shown itself to be the brother of Africa, and that was the decisive factor, the left-wing politician said know his home.
In the meantime, the former president’s show has been exposed as an old wives’ tale. Two years ago, Sérgio Cabral, the highly corrupt former governor of Rio, together with the Olympic organizer Carlos Arthur Nuzman and the Brazilian entrepreneur Arthur Soares, granted the votes of several IOC members before the decisive vote at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to have bought. Cabral claims that Lula knew about these machinations. Lula denies that. He declared two years ago that he found the IOC environment to be serious and serious at the time.
Just over a month ago, Nuzman was sentenced to 30 years and 11 months in prison. He is said to have been the head of the criminal gang that organized money for African IOC votes from billionaire Arthur Soares. By the way, Nuzman also worked for his own account: the investigators found 16 gold bars hidden in a Geneva locker. It should only be a small part of what ended up in Nuzman’s pocket.
Much more important than Lula’s visits to Africa at the expense of the Brazilian taxpayers, however, was Lamine Diack, the Senegalese head of the World Athletics Federation, who died in early December at the age of 88. He is considered a key figure in many corruption cases related to the Olympic Games – including the “Rio 2016” case. And as a valuable source of votes from Africa.
What remained of the World Cup and the Olympics was a heap of debts, oversized sports facilities and stadiums, the sustainable use of which was promised but has not really been implemented to this day. The Olympic Park in Barra da Tijuca sometimes exudes the charm of an abandoned ghost village, and this is not only due to the lull in events caused by the corona pandemic. Rio’s Olympic hopes from 2009 have come to nothing, apart from a few improvements in the transport infrastructure, such as a partial expansion of the metro. Much worse, however, is the loss of confidence in Brazilian politics caused by the catastrophically managed major events, which ultimately contributed to driving the angry people into the arms of right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro.
This year there will be elections in Brazil. Because Bolsonaro rules the country terribly bad, Lula da Silva leads the polls again. It should be exciting for Lula if the American judiciary should interfere in the investigation into the Olympic scandal. Because in the 2009 ballot, the then applicant Chicago was defeated by the Brazilian competition from Rio in the first round by a hair’s breadth.
The Americans haven’t forgotten that, especially since Chicago’s application was first class. The US authorities are closely following the investigation in Brazil. And world sport has had its experiences with American investigators, who also uncovered the machinations surrounding the South American football association Conmebol, which ultimately led to the great FIFA scandal. It was the beginning of the end of the then all-powerful President Joseph Blatter.
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