(RIO DE JANEIRO) — After 1,192 days, Brazil’s run of hosting mega-sports events came to an end Sunday at the Paralympic Games.
It began with soccer’s Confederations Cup in 2013, extended to the 2014 World Cup, ran through IOC President Thomas Bach’s goodbye speech last month at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and finished with the closing ceremony of the Paralympics before 45,000 spectators at Rio’s Maracana stadium.
Awarded when Brazil was a rising economic power, the sports pageants focused unprecedented attention on the country — much of it unwanted.
As the shows went on, Brazil plunged into a deep recession. A billion-dollar …read more
Source: Time
