Former Malibu Mayor and local resident Pamela Conley Ulich reports on the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as a special correspondent to The Malibu Times.
She has attended the last three summer Olympic games: 2004 in Athens, 2008 in Beijing, 2012 in London and now the Rio Olympics. She also reported as a correspondent to The Malibu Times in 2012.
Ulich served on Malibu City Council for eight years, from 2004-2012, including one term as mayor.
RIO-DICULOUSLY AMAZING SUMMER OLYMPICS
The rain is falling down hard on this, the last day of the Rio Olympics, but Brazil’s spirits seem to have finally lifted. Perhaps it was winning the gold medal in soccer against Germany — the nation that pulverized Brazil’s soccer dreams only two years ago in the World Cup — or maybe it was men’s volleyball — where Brazil won gold too, in front of a loud and rough crowd that booed when the opposing players served — that changed Brazil. In total, Brazil won 19 medals (seven gold, six silver, six bronze) but there is definitely a different feeling on this last day of the Olympics — where everyone at the Rio airport from the ticket agents to the military officers with guns are smiling and going the extra mile to help us (our flight was canceled because of bad weather, but one ticket agent worked cheerfully over an hour to rebook us on different flights). Absent are the protestors who had greeted us with shouts upon our arrival.
Intead of Zika, I think I caught Brazil Olympoliosis. It would be easy to write about how great Team USA performed in Rio — their hard work and grit paid off with 121 medals (including 46 gold, the most ever in a non-boycotted game). I could write about how locally based athletes did: David Torrence, a man who runs locally in our hills, but for Peru in the Olympics, placed 15th in the 5,000-meter run. Or I could write about how Team USA indoor women’s volleyball won bronze with Kim Hill (Pepperdine) who had “double-figure scoring with 19 points via 13 kills on 34 attacks, four aces and two blocks.”
Hill told reporters for Team USA, “I was so proud of how we battled back. Just one point at a time; that’s what we kept saying, ‘Just one point at a time.’”
All of these stories were possibilities, but my mind keeps wandering back to Brazil — its people and places.
I will never forget Brazil — the good, the bad and . . . the colorful and crumbling favelas that lined the hills; the old and discarded hubcaps that were painted yellow, blue, pink, and planted to look like flowers on the side of the highways; the pungent and putrid smells that emitted from a couple of the dark streams strewn with garbage; the beautiful graffiti-filled walls and Rio’s penchant to party until 6 a.m. at a Rave house on the beach just outside our hotel.
I will also never forget the smiles that seemed to ooze effortlessly from the Brazilians. How can they smile given some of the living conditions? I could be wrong, but I believe these Olympics winners are not defined by the medals they wear around their necks, but the heart they put back into their communities.
One Brazillian explained to me that she had “goosebumps” watching Rafela Silva win Brazil’s first gold medal in the 57kg judo division. Why? Because Silva came from the notorious Cidade de Deus, or City of God — Rio’s famously violent favela. Her favela acquired its notoriety after a 2002 film, which chronicled its decline into drug battles, criminal rivalries and excessive violence between the 1960s and 1980s.
According to a Sports Illustrated author Wolff, “The movie’s tagline — ‘If you run, the beast catches you; if you stay, the beast eats you’ — captures the fatalism of life in the cramped shanty towns where one of every five Cariocas (native of Rio de Janeiro) lives, often trying to avoid crossfire between drug gangs and police.”
Silva was the silver lining proving to many that it is possible to succeed regardless of where you are born and raised.
The goosebumps turned into a full-blown case of Brazil soccer flu when Brazil’s soccer captain #10 Neymar kicked more than the winning 5th penalty kick point. This penalty kick was more than just a winning goal — it was a shot that in one instant made Brazilians beam with pride and joy. Neymar is another shining example of a person who was able to overcome adversity. Neymar came from a favela, but now uses his fame and fortune to make his neighborhood better. According to a recent New York Times article, Neymar has spent $6 million of his own money to build an institute with classrooms and ball fields in an attempt to resuscitate his poor neighborhood in Praia Grande, a coastal city an hour outside São Paulo that is troubled by drugs, prostitution, and a lack of good schools and jobs. The facility opened in December 2014, a few blocks from where Neymar once lived on B Street, playing soccer on a road that was not yet.
Another Brazil favorite was Jamaican Usain Bolt, who not only won gold, but more importantly sat in the stands among many Brazilian fans to witness the gold medal soccer match. I don’t think it was Bolt’s three gold medals that Brazil fell in love with, or his larger-than-life personality; I believe it was that he also rose from a very poor neighborhood in Jamaica and because Bolt has also used his fame and fortune to help those in his home town and country.
Thank you, Rio, for showing us that the Olympics are really not about the gold hanging around necks, but are about overcoming difficulties, giving back and inspiring others to be their best.
Even if you aren’t going to compete in the next Olympics, you can learn more about how Los Angeles is doing its part to try to host the 2024 Olympics so we can experience the Olympic spirit first hand in our hometown. You can start by visiting la24.org to learn more.
