It is true to say that every Olympics faces searching questions at this point in its life cycle and that most are luxuriating in praise by the time the curtain comes down. But in Brazil the cracks cannot be papered over The great and the good of the Olympic “family” gathered in Greece last week amid much mutual backslapping for the vaguely absurd flame‑lighting ceremony that links the ancient Games to its modern incarnation. That very afternoon, tragedy hit when a much heralded new cycleway built for the Games in Rio de Janeiro crumbled into the sea, killing two people and leaving three more missing. The contrasting events seemed to underline the gap between rhetoric and reality as the daily countdown to the Rio Games dips into double figures. Continue reading...