Do Rio's Olympics stand prayer of succeeding?

(Photo: USA TODAY Sports)RIO DE JANEIRO -- When the municipal velodrome was inaugurated here for the 2007 Pan American Games, it was the first training space for competitive indoor cyclists in the city. The wooden floors of the $7 million structure were the best quality in the country, as velodromes in the Brazilian states of São Paulo and Paraná were made of concrete.

Athletes took to the space, and Brazilians began winning medals. A cycling school in the velodrome that trained about 100 children from low-income communities had identified a girl with “absurd potential,” said Claudio Santos, the president of the Rio de Janeiro state cycling federation.

Nearly six years later, the velodrome…