A euphoric sense of opportunity came over me when I opened my browser window to Economist.com today and read a headline titled, "Rio's Sporting Carnival." I was crossing my fingers that the IOC would choose Rio over the other candidate cities Chicago, Tokyo, and Madrid; but I thought that was merely overly-optimistic wishful thinking. High crime rates in Rio were a huge concern for the committee, so I never gave the bid much consideration. With the world lens sharply focused on Rio for the next six years, the time may be ripe for sports development programs to take advantage of the publicity and tackle the complex urban youth gang problems in the city.
With Rio hosting the 2016 Olympic Games, dramatic changes will occur in the sharply divided city. Squalor is omnipresent, as is state corruption. I will be very interested to see the changes come into effect, and at whose expense. I don't expect that the inhabitants of the more than 800 favelas will receive too many positives from Rio's presence on the world stage. However, I hope that I am proven wrong. I hope that the global attention on this divided city will in some way trigger a movement of change in both the favelas and the government.
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