Hosting the 2016 Summer Games hasn’t been kind to Rio De Janeiro or its people.
According to Stephen Wade of the Associated Press, the state of Rio De Janeiro has declared a “financial calamity” in the wake of the Olympics last summer.
“The state of Rio de Janeiro has declared a ‘financial calamity’ and is several months behind in paying teachers and public employees. The country itself is in the deepest recession in decades, with unemployment at 12 percent,” Wade writes.
On top of the inability to pay public employees and school teachers, the venues that were built for the Olympics have proven to be a humongous one-time expense.
Deodoro Olympic Park, which was to be used as a park and recreation area after the games, has been closed, per the report.
“Measures are being taken to ensure that the space is reopened as soon as possible,” the city said in a statement to The Associated Press. It did not say when that might happen. It said a contract had been terminated at the end of the year with a company operating the park.
This is just one of many venues that have proved incapable of living up to the promise that they would be viable over the long haul, including the $20 million golf course built for the Olympics. The Brazilian government sunk anywhere between $10 and $12 billion into the Olympics, and now the nation is suffering under the weight of the financial burden.