You may not have realised it, but the Olympics in Rio are
coming soon. If you didn’t realise; what
cave have you been hiding in, and is there room for one more?
You can’t escape it – everywhere you look, there’s some
reference to Rio 2016, the correios (post office) have released a range of
Olympic stamps, along with some stickers that can be added to envelopes,
Olympic designs are appearing on some R$1 coins, every airport has an official
Rio 2016 shop and sports channels fill the ad breaks with reminders of how you
can watch all the fun on that particular channel (or network, considering rede
Globo seems to own a large portion of the channels). Then looking at international media, it’s
there too: either it’s a new doping scandal and hope it will affect the Rio
games, it’s a young hopeful in some given sport who is heading to the games, or
– and this is what I see most – it’s stories about how Rio might not be ready
for the games and the cleanliness of the water in Guanabara Bay where some of
the aquatic sports are to be staged.
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| Pollution in Guanabara Bay |
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| Juma the Jaguar, appearing in chains with the torch |
These negative feelings then turned to anger at the news of
the shooting of a jaguar that was used in part of an Olympic torch event in
Manaus. It had reportedly escaped
attacked a soldier soon after the event and, after four tranquiliser darts
failed to stop the big cat, it was shot dead by a soldier with a pistol. There was initially anger over the use of a
chained, wild animal together with the Olympic torch, which was only amplified
over the news of its death.
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| Pink River Dolphin lured out of the water |
Soon after this, there was more outrage as a torch bearer
entered a river and lured an endangered pink river dolphin out of the water to be
photographed by the torch. While the organisers
claimed that the dolphin was in its natural habitat, many people were angered
about the exploitation and harassment of wild animals for the purposes of
publicity, especially after the death of the jaguar.
Since then, there are been several attempts to extinguish
the flame as it tours Brazil, including using a fire extinguisher and a bucket
of water. So when the torch came to Pato
Branco, we didn’t know what to expect. I
was told that the torch would be carried through the town, along Rua Tocantins,
where I live and would make its way to the Ginásio Patão, a sports complex on
the outskirts of the city. I wasn’t
particularly excited about the torch, but non-the-less interested to see it –
it’s not every day the Olympic torch passes through your town after all. So I decided I’d watch from the balcony and
take a few photos; maybe the aerial viewpoint would be quite interesting. I didn’t know exactly what time it would
pass, so I settled down to watch the Germany vs Italy match on tv, keeping an
eye out the window.
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| Calm as the procession approached |
By 5pm, the sun was starting to set and there was still no
sign of the torch. By 6pm, there was
noise from the city’s square, but no sign of the torch, the sun was down and
the last glows in the sky were fading.
It wasn’t until 7pm, with the sky completely dark, that the road was
closed and a procession of vehicles started to slowly makes its way down Rua
Tocantins. We have a net on the balcony,
to prevent the cats from falling, which meant I had no chance of taking a
picture with the flash, so – somewhat grumpily – I went outside to await the
torch.
One lane of the road had been closed off, with tape barriers
protruding into the road at an angle to allow crowds an unobstructed view of
the procession making its way up the hill, although they needn’t have bothered
as there was hardly anyone else waiting; near me, there was a woman and her
daughter down the hill and a small group slightly higher up, elsewhere I saw
scattered groups of people.
The procession was preceded by several police motorbikes
driving up and down to clear the road and, I assume, looking for people with
buckets, although there did not appear to be any trouble and eventually the
procession arrived. First came a small
coach carrying torch-bearers for the next stages of the relay, followed by floats
for Coca Cola (handing out small cans of coke) and Bradesco (a Brazilian bank)
and finally, the torch bearer, closely surrounded by fire fighters singing army
running songs as they passed.
Just then, I bumped into my wife’s cousin, who had been in
the square for the start of the relay and followed the torch to where I was
now. We decided to head up the hill to
Ginásio Patão to see the end of the Pato Branco torch relay. When we arrived, the atmosphere was
completely different. Rather than random
bunches of interested onlookers, this was a festival. A large stage had been set up with live
music, giant inflatable balloons with the Olympic and Coca Cola logos (I always
like the irony of pairing up one organisation that is concerned with the
absolute pinnacle of human fitness and sporting achievement, and the other a
purveyor of sugary soft drinks – completely different ends of the spectrum!)
and floats where you can queue to have your photo taken with an Olympic torch
and one of the sponsors’ products in the background (Coca Cola or Bradesco
logos, Nissan cars…)
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| Giant balloons over the crowd |
As arrival time for the torch approached, two giant white
ducks (the name Pato Branco literally means ‘White Duck’) made their way to the
stage, where they remained, bobbing around until the end of the
festivities. A buzz of excitement went
through the crowds, everyone gathered by the barriers, phone aloft and the
torch bearer arrived to much excitement.
The flame was then transferred to another torch, which was taken through
the gates to the newly renovated sports complex, before returning to the middle
of the crowd and making its way to the stage to light the larger torch. Finally, after an interview and some speeches
(although I couldn’t tell who was actually on the stage), the flame was
transferred to a lantern and the torch on stage was extinguished. The crowds started to melt away and it wasn’t
long before the stage was being disassembled in order to take the show to the
next destination.
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| Olympic Torch on the stage |
The day seemed to be a good representation of the country’s
ambivalence towards the games, somewhat similar to the thoughts about the World
Cup in 2014. While people are angry that
the games are going ahead against a backdrop of recession and corruption, that
Guanabara Bay is still polluted, that wild animals were used for publicity and harassed
or killed, there is still a seam of excitement running through a country, a
sense of participating in history and, when the games begin, I’m sure the
country will be getting behind their athletes and enjoying the games.
