Instead of showcasing a rising global power with a booming economy, the 2014 Games put a spotlight on Brazil’s most serious economic recession since the 1930s, along with a host of social problems.
A former Olympic gold medalist reflects on his own financial struggles as he trained and competed for the 1984 Games. Decades later, not much has changed for many Olympians.
Protests against the Rio Olympics must be understood in the context of the growing global reaction to both the way these mega-events are organised and the entities promoting them.
The mainstream media has knocked Brazil for the Zika virus, doping scandals and safety concerns. But citizen social media users, by revealing an alternate narrative, could even the score for Rio.
The IOC will allow Russian athletes to compete in Rio 2016 if they’ve been cleared by their respective international sporting federation of doping. Should other countries pull out of the games?
The Olympic Games are a theatre — sometimes farce, sometimes tragedy, reality TV, morality play or soap opera — where geopolitical, social and technological dramas are played out.
Only a better understanding of what drives doping can improve enforcement. To do so, we must break with the perception of doping as an individual or moral problem.
The countries who regularly top the medal table spend millions on training and developing athletes, money that poorer countries simply can’t afford to spend on their sporting stars.