Published in August 2016, this article by Sandra Quintela is the English-language version of her assessment closing Rio’s ten-year cycle of mega events, begun with the 2007 Pan American Games. Quintela documents the recurring pattern of cost overruns across the Pan, the World Cup and the Olympics, and argues that public money financed a “market-city” designed to be sold rather than lived in. The text denounces mass evictions, the repression of informal workers, soaring transport fares, billions in foregone tax revenue, and a reversal of budget priorities that favoured security spending over health and education — opening the door to a militarisation that kills mainly young, Black and favela residents. Challenging the private interests of the IOC and FIFA placed above the public good, she calls for a new model of sporting event grounded in social justice and real democracy.

For the portuguese version of this text click here.

The text was originally published on PACS’s Medium and later made available in PDF for public consultation in the library’s digital archive.

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