Oh, you thought we were done talking about how much of a disaster the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro were? I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news. Four months after the closing ceremonies and the official handoff to Tokyo, Olympic organizers in Rio de Janeiro are still struggling to pay their bills.
According to a report from the Associated Press, organizers are still in debt of $3.7 million owed to the International Paralympic Committee.
“Never have we faced an issue like this with an organizing committee being so late paying travel grants,” IPC spokesperson Craig Spence said to the AP. “Some of our smaller national Paralympic committees, who took out loans to pay for their travel for the Games, are now in serious danger of defaulting on their repayments.”
As Spence claims, money that was supposed to go toward those grants was instead seized by creditors through lawsuits and court orders.
Just throw this on top of the laundry pile of problems Rio faced preparing for and hosting the summer Olympics.