London to Rio

It was a 9 billion pound, largely glitch-free Games. Brazil has a lot to live up to

London 2012, estimates say, was the most expensive Games ever, with a projected cost of around 9.4 billion pounds, a fourfold increase on the original calculation. But considering the scale of the event and the media scrutiny it attracts, London 2012's largely glitch-free passage can be termed a fairly reasonable return on investment. True, the flag foul-up early on, reports of the inconvenience the Olympic bus lanes caused to the locals and a few half-empty stadiums, were issues. But they were all attended to long before they could really bite.

While 2012 was the third time London hosted the Olympics, Rio 2016 will be a pioneering effort, with the Games coming to the South American continent for the first time. London, as host city, brought with it impressions of courtesy and an instinctive recourse to rules. Rio will be bathed in a characteristically less formal, more festive vibe. Polite volunteers asking Usain Bolt to "stay in a straight line" before the 100m final or confiscating his skipping ropes before he enters the venue, it is safe to say, will not make an appearance in Rio. By virtue of being closer to the nerve centre of global politics, London also saw the Games being flogged for mileage by statesmen from either side of the Atlantic. Rio is expected to be free of such piggybacking.

The chief of Brazil's Olympic committee has already stated that they will put in measures, including a proposal called "Full Stadium", to make sure Rio avoids London's few hitches. Whether they will look at improving on London's chintzy pink and blue look remains to be seen, but more serious challenges remain. How Brazil will combine security measures — ominous photographs of anti-aircraft guns across venues in London reinforced the unavoidability of the concern — without putting off the large sport-tourist population that Rio 2016 is bound to draw, is surely one of them. In any case, Brazil will have the mother of all rehearsals when it hosts the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and most of these issues will presumably be addressed during the mega event. As for matters closer home, India will look, four years hence, to continue on its modest Olympic ascendancy, one that saw the country incrementally increase its medal tally from Athens to Beijing to London.

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