The 2016 Olympics have come and gone, but not without it’s headlines. Whether that be Michael Phelps winning five gold medals to further seal him into history as one of the greatest swimmers to ever live, or Ryan Lochte lying his way into major headlines. Although there are speculations every four years on whether the Olympics will go over smoothly, the stakes seemed to be much higher than usual this year, which begs the question, were the Olympics doomed from the start?

To answer this question more thoroughly, one has to go back to October 2nd, 2009 when the International Olympic Committee officially voted to hold the games in Rio de Janeiro. Rio, Chicago, Tokyo, and Madrid were all in contention. After going through the three round voting process considering a multitude of things from accommodation to finance, Rio was chosen over all else. Being the first South American country to ever host the Olympics, it had a lot riding on its shoulders.

Before the games started on August 5th, everything seemed to be going wrong for Brazil. With only four months until the games commenced, less than half of the tickets had been sold. As if this was not bad enough, the country was ravaged with political scandal, a slumping economy and terrible water quality.

The World Health Organization was practically pleading with athletes and Olympians alike not to go to the games in Rio this year, due to all of the press about the Zika virus.

The political scandal, was caused by former Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff, spending more money than was allowed and by-passing and violating budget laws. Her impeachment trial began August 25th of this year, and she has been voted out of office as of September 1st.

While the Olympics were not doomed from the very beginning, as soon as the world took a closer look at the country and its political and economical situations, it is obvious that the Olympic Committee made a mistake this time.

Bruno  Böehs, a native Brazilian, thought that the olympics were “a total success!”. He mentioned the violence and terrorism in society today and how lucky it was that Rio did not experience anything too out of the ordinary.

“(The Olympics) have been helping a lot with the economy of our country, bringing tourists from all over the world,” Boehs said.

Looking at the positive press that the country is receiving from all of the festivities that are going on, one can only wonder if it will be short lived. Situations like what has gone on in Rio this year can only be learned from, and corrected in the future.