Olympic athletes arrive in Rio, fill the void left by cynicism
Opening ceremony didn't have mechanical wizardry, but featured plenty of heart
By Scott Russell, CBC Sports
I've been here more than a week now and finally the sport is about to get underway.
That sick feeling of fretting and wondering whether things will be OK has to go away now because there's no turning back on these 2016 Olympics, the first in South America. The venues are built and the athletes have paraded in the passionate and strikingly sincere opening ceremony.
There has been no pyrotechnic orgy or abundance of mechanical wizardry to speak of.
But there has been plenty of heart. It has oozed from every crevice of the magnificent Maracana stadium.
Brazil raised the curtain on its Olympics hoping to make peace with the world. There was a symbolic promise to plant trees and sustain the ecosystem. The music reflected the soul of a people who are still evolving and trying to come to grips with the reality of diversity and struggle which has marked their history.
Things are always changing here and not very often lately, for the better.
I hope everything will be alright.
Cynicism looms large
The constant bombardment of the obvious reasons why the Olympics should not be in Rio de Janeiro has become oppressive. The cynicism has reached epidemic proportions.
And yet, there is so much truth attached to every impediment. The gap between rich and poor here is wide. The waters are, in places, foul. The economy is in tatters and the people are preoccupied with a government which has lost their faith.
There are hundreds of young soldiers wearing combat fatigues and bearing semi-automatic weapons at every intersection near the Olympic park. More than I've ever seen, at any Games in my experience. Lines are long, the traffic is insane and the buses run on an erratic schedule, which makes getting around this breathtakingly, beautiful city, a grind.
The overbearing and disheartening revelations of the Russian doping scandal have dominated thoughts and threatened to scuttle the public's belief in the Games in general. It's distracted many of us and for good reason because if cheating goes unchecked at the Olympics, what are we to place our trust in?
But then again, the people who live here, the Cariocas, are friendly. And they are helpful even though few of them speak any English at all.
'It's such a beautiful place'
Before I left home I had a conversation with a Brazilian guy I know about what I might find in Rio for the Olympics. His name is Ari and he's 65 years old, a ship builder who came to Canada five years ago to marry the love of his life in his later years.
"My dream is to go back soon and to sail in a boat with my friends in Guanabara Bay," he said. "It's too bad…they have big political problems. It's such a beautiful place."
I thought about the conversation I had with Ari as I sat in the magnificent Maracana Stadium and broadcast the opening ceremony with our chief correspondent, Peter Mansbridge. The arrival of the athletes sparked something, or at least it felt that way to me. And I think Peter felt it too.
They seemed to fill the void just by showing up.
To see the greatest of them all like Michael Phelps of the U.S., Andy Murray of Great Britain, Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce of Jamaica, as well as the Canadian flag bearer Rosie MacLennan was an optimistic sign.
To see the great Kenyan, Kip Keino, awarded with the Olympic Laurel was incredibly moving. To witness the arrival of the team of international refugees was downright inspiring.
When the courageous marathoner Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima ignited the cauldron, it was therapeutic. Maybe all was not lost after all. Perhaps there was still real value to be uncovered in this massive exercise.
Tide begins to turn
In their absence all we had talked about is why the Olympics would bother to come here in the first place. But as the athletes entered and the crowd rose to greet them, the tide swelled and then began to turn.
They have blessedly become the focus of our attention.
At long last, the central characters in a story, which only they can write, have arrived.
Back home in Canada, Ari's eyes had lit up when I asked him about Rio.
He became emotional.
"I love my city," he said. Then he put his hands together and looked to the sky as if to say a prayer.
"I hope our Olympics go all right," he pleaded. "It's a beautiful place with wonderful people."
I'm with you 100 per cent, Ari.
Here's hoping Rio 2016 will be OK.
We all need it to be.