OLYMPIC FAILURE

Just as the FIFA scandal showed what a farce the bidding for the World Cup had become, so are the Olympics turning into a joke. Only it isn’t funny, and it’s dangerous.

Take FIFA. It awarded the 2022 to Qatar, located on the Arab peninsula and also the home of 100-degree temperatures. This tiny nation has little regard for human rights and its mistreatment of workers imported to build the necessary infrastructure is well-documented. Deaths occur with frightening regularity and the workers are housed in hovels.

The last Winter Olympics, in Sochi, Russia, involved slapdash construction in (wait for it) a resort area known for mild weather. Sure, why have snow at the Winter Olympics? And this will also be an issue in Beijing in 2022.

Of more immediate concern, however, is Brazil and the 2016 Summer Olympics. Several events take place on the water, and that is not exactly water in Guanabara Bay and Rodrigo de Freitas Lake in Rio de Janeiro. It is sludge. It is sewage. It is, according to an independent report published by the Associated Press last month, rife with bacteria from human waste and viruses.

Thirteen U.S. rowers in Rio were stricken with stomach disorders at the recent World Junior Rowing Championships – 13 of 40 down with vomiting and diarrhea. Other teams also reported some illnesses, but none as severe as the U.S. team.

Water purity standards in the U.S. are higher than in many countries. Perhaps food or drinking water contributed to the ailments. But Dr. Kathryn Ackerman, the team physician said: “I think it’s from the lake.”

The Olympics are always a gaudy show. So is the World Cup. Now they’re becoming sickening spectacles.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .