Community Resilience in Post-Olympic Games Period: The True History behind the Blue Sky of Rio De Janeiro

Adriana Portella (Federal University of Pelotas)

The investigation analysed the urban and social legacy of the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. The objective is to provide a critical analysis through the narratives of residents and stakeholders about the way the removals were happening in the city together with the urban planning strategies, and whether those actions benefitted the population across social classes. The research is exploratory in the sense that it mostly captured the emotions and narratives of the people directly affected by the work carried out to support the mega-event. The study was conducted in Rio de Janeiro with residents and community leaders from ‘Morro da Providência', ‘Vila Autódromo', and ‘Morro do Vidigal', as well as stakeholders involved in the urban projects of the Olympic Park and Port area. The results found to indicate a questionable scenario of what Rio's sustainable candidature for the Olympic Games should be; also, they demonstrate the lack of commitment of stakeholders with the social inclusion of local residents in the intervention areas. Technical visits, behavioural observations and face-to-face interviews with the residents who live in areas of intervention and with the stakeholders involved in the urban projects were conducted. The data obtained allowed for the identification of variables that are not part of the official discourse of the Rio Olympic candidature. All discussions are supported by the literature, by the technical and observational visits carried out and by the content analysis of the transcripts of interviews. It is hoped that this work will enable new approaches and debates about what happened in the city's urban fabric due to the 2016 Olympics so that it does not occur in other cases of host cities for mega-sport events. This study was funded by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development.