You’re Complaining About The Olympics Wrong

We’re right in the middle of the phase that precedes most global sports mega-events: apocalyptic predictions and violent rejection. This usually gives way to a second phase, when the television show actually begins, everything goes mostly fine (fingers crossed here in Rio), and attention shifts to the sports. This first phase occurs in part because mainstream English-language reporters cast their eyes on places like South Africa, Russia, or Brazil, and find them unpleasantly strange and foreign, sometimes even poor. A bunch of journalists get there and find there’s not much else to do but repeatedly ask, “Wow, is this going to be a disaster?” But it also occurs because we know there are some real problems in the ways that these events are put on. Not only are many recent complaints <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/rio-2016/2016/07/18/maracana-stadium-cracklands-cocaine-rio-de-janeiro/87250196/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">overstated</a>, they’re pointed in the <a href="https://www.allianztravelinsurance.com/about/press/2016/zika-concerns-impact-olympic-travel-plans.htm" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">wrong direction</a>. Here’s a helpful guide to help you complain correctly: <a href="https://medium.com/the-awl/youre-complaining-about-the-olympics-wrong-f85205a0e1b0">Read More</a>