More Than Two Years After The Games, Rio's Olympic Debt Keeps Rising

Just because the Olympics are long over doesn’t mean that we’re done with the fallout from the Rio de Janeiro Games. According to a report from Brazil, the debt incurred by the local organizing committee has dramatically increased to more than three times the original estimate. In December 2016, the debt was listed at $32 million USD; two years later, that figure has more than tripled to $113 million.

Both the Brazilian government and that destroyer of cities better known as the IOC have refused to help the local organizing committee dispatch its debts.

The fact that the Rio organizing committee is even still a thing, with a staff of seven full-time employees more than two years after the Games ended, is due to its ongoing legal troubles. Jornal Noroeste, the publication that reported the debt figure, says the committee is facing nearly 600 lawsuits stemming from its failure to pay suppliers and workers.

Meanwhile Tokyo, the Olympics’ next victim, has already gone way over budget in its own preparations. Cities are refusing to host the Games and sports federation heads are giving interviews where they unabashedly admit to preferring.

Feels like we’re in the end throes of the Olympics.