I see the last 2 years as world public relations disasters for Brazil. The spin-off from such events should be selling an attractive positive image of the country, attracting more tourists, investments etc. However prior to the World Cup I saw people all the time online telling people not to come to Brazil! Now the hostile crowd behaviour in the Olympics basically carries on with the same theme. Some of the Brazilian TV commentators I hear here are disgusting ridiculing the bronze medalists on the podium as "loosers" when a Brazilian had won gold, and shouting at them to "stick it up you"! This of course only incites negative crowd behaviour.
When Brazil won the right to stage these 2 events there was dancing in the streets. Now the sour political and economic climate has changed this. Brazil is essentially focused on football (and not doing well at that anymore) and a few other sports to a lesser extent. There needs to be a whole re-education of the sportculture in Brazil to diversify it, encourage and make possible grass-root participation, and embibe in the Brazilian press and public as a whole (there are good exceptions but not enough) the Olympic spirit.
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