RIO DE JANEIRO — Proud and beautiful as this seaside city is, glorious as the feats of athleticism and sportsmanship were these past two weeks, these Games underline that the Olympic model is fractured.
As we depart, Rio de Janeiro is left with stadiums for which it has little use and swimming pools far removed from the working class who could dearly use them. Tens of thousands of residents were displaced, a golf course sits atop a former nature preserve, and the towers of the athletes’ village will have a second life as luxury housing. Rio’s state government turns its pockets inside out looking for money to pay salaries and to keep hospitals open.