Welcome to Hell

by John Curnow on 5 Jul 2016 Wow. But it is not Acca/Dacca’s new album or the title of their next world tour we talk of. We’ve already had an assortment of brilliant academics, economists, statesmen and football stars tell us. Now it is the local police force’s turn. Stay away from Rio. That’s kind of a pretty serious indictment, especially when they did it on their own time. Of course with virtually all of them not having been paid in ages, all of their time is their own time, but the principle remains the important aspect here.

So what started out a several months back as the occasional comment, in later times became the weekly review, and now we have the whole editorial dedicated to it. On Monday June 27, a group of off-duty police officers stood inside the Galeao International Airport to greet arriving passengers with a banner that read, 'Welcome to Hell. Police and firefighters don't get paid, whoever comes to Rio de Janeiro will not be safe.'

Another banner said, 'The police’s priority is the people, the government’s priority is the Olympics.' Outside, a message painted over a bridge simply said, 'Welcome, we don't have hospitals!'

Brazil has a violent history and Rio has long been a recognised hot spot, but in spite of this record, we actually find that crime is presently still increasing. Rio’s Police have been criticised for their use of force, more often than not deadly, but in addition to not being paid, they themselves are taking an increasing hit. 85 Officers were slain in 2015, and so far in 2016, 52 Officers have already paid the final price.

Crime has already affected our own Australian Olympic Team, the Spanish and then recently, Team GBR had their RIBs stolen. They were returned a little while later stripped of a lot of their gear and at least that episode did not involve weapons and assault.

Yet before we all grab a soapbox, please consider this. Our own double Olympic Gold Medallist, Michael Diamond, has serious issues to contend with in relation to alcohol and his firearm, yet Queensland State MP (Cape York), Billy Gordon, gets caught at twice the legal alcohol limit and only gets disqualified from driving for four months and cops a $750 fine.

Only problem is that Gordon does not have a licence to start with (never has BTW), and was caught this time whilst disqualified from driving anyway, and has a litany of other ‘occurrences’ to add to the slate. Diamond would not be the first Olympian to require help outside of sport. Glass houses…

Now apart from social issues, which are a far bigger fix for Brazil to administer, it is the country’s economy that is probably the route evil. Brazil’s economy shrank 3.8 per cent last year, which makes it their worst recession in 25 years. The International Monetary Fund and the global markets are predicting a similar contraction this year. That does augur well for anything, save for more frustration, violence and dismay.

Then there’s drugs. Perhaps in any other year, this sort of wholesale doping would be getting a hammering in the media. Latest to meet the finger pointing to the carpark is the Russian Men’s Quad(ruple) Sculls, after former Gold Medallist (2004) and stroke of the crew, Sergei Fedorovtsev was found to have trimetazidine in his system after a routine test on May 17.

It is a Blue Ribbon event and one of my personal favourites. Four guys with two sticks each, no coxswain and they belt down the 2000m course in something like five and half minutes, which is not a lot slower than the Men’s Eight (say 15 seconds). It is hard enough to get the intricate sculling movements right at 25 strokes per minute, let alone the 38-40 they can do, whilst putting outrageous amounts of Larry on the handles. Then there’s breathing and busting through the wall to get past, just to say you finished, let alone collect a medal…

Fedorovtsev’s case was reported as an ‘accident’, but if the shoe fits… You see Russia, along with Kazakhstan and Belarus may all yet cop a one-year ban in weightlifting, resulting from the retesting of samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. The International Weightlifting Federation is waiting upon a final ruling from the IOC before making announcements about various countries’ participation. BTW, Russia is one of six countries that have already had some of their quota places for Rio withdrawn by the IWF.

The Russian Track and Field team was suspended in November 2015 and that has been upheld for Rio. Phil Jones, the former CEO of YA (Australian Sailing) and now CEO of Athletics Australia, called it early after the systemic nature of the doping became evident after Russia's doping whistleblower, Yuliya Stepanova, set the ball rolling.

On calls for a centralised anti-doping system to a replace the current series of local agencies, Jones said, 'I think the idea of a local agency testing their own athletes is simply not going to stand the test of time. We've seen (this) with Russia, not only in athletics but in other sports.' Note that Stepanova, a World Champion and Gold Medallist, has been cleared to compete as a neutral athlete.

Note that Russian Olympic Committee spokesman Konstantin Vybornov confirmed to The Associated Press by e-mail that the Russians have appealed and it has been filed with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. This will be heard on July 19.

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