RIO DE JANEIRO — The last day of the Olympics was windy and intermittently rainy: not quite beach weather.
But the time had come. With the closing ceremonies imminent, Sunday was no-regrets day, the moment to check all the boxes you should have checked earlier, which meant it was time to go into the ocean off Copacabana Beach.
I grew up around the sea in Honolulu and San Diego and have swum and bodysurfed in all sorts of places, but in Rio, I have to admit that the bad news got to me: polluted water in the lagoons and bays; super bacteria and floating debris; municipal cleanup promises unkept.