Not yet medal contenders

WHEN Rio de Janeiro won the right almost seven years ago to host the Olympic games in 2016, the cidade maravilhosa (wonderful city) seemed to deserve its nickname. Violence, as much part of Rio’s image as its beaches, had been falling for more than a decade (see chart). Rio’s economy, and that of the surrounding state (also called Rio de Janeiro), was booming, thanks to the world’s demand for the oil that lies off its shores. The games would show off a prosperous, self-confident city, its organisers claimed. As important, if Rio could show that it can plan as well as it parties, it would bury the idea that “Brazil is not a serious country,” as a Brazilian diplomat put it in the 1960s. “Those who give us this chance will not regret it,” promised Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, the president who brought the games to Brazil.