Image: BBC
By Situation Theatre 08/08/2016
Don't let the brutal state crackdown on poor communities distract you from Australia's shower of gold!
The 600 families evicted from the Vila Autodromo favela to make way for Olympic parking lots are said to be really impressed with Australia’s golden start to the games.
Denise Costa dos Santos, a Vila Autodromo resident whose home was bulldozed before the Games, talked excitedly about the big win for Mansfield’s Catherine Skinner in the women’s trap shooting: “The way she hit 12 of 15 of those targets was really amazing. Although it reminded me of how Rio authorities targeted the home I’d lived in for 26 years, I really couldn’t be happier for her. To think she eats a tub of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream before competing, wow.”
Tens of thousands of people have been evicted in the lead up to the Games and there have been widespread crackdowns on homeless people and poor communities to sweep the streets clean for the international media.
Still, to see Mack Horton take it up to Sun Yang in the 400m freestyle, and to see the Campbell sisters shine in the 4 x 100, well that really just makes it all worthwhile.