IOC official: Rio's Olympics preparations are 'the worst I have experienced'

Mario Tama/Getty Images

IOC official: Rio's Olympics preparations are 'the worst I have experienced'
(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

In what is giving us shades of PTSD from the ill-prepared Winter Olympics in Sochi, the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday that the construction work for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro is just short of a full-on disaster.

John Coates, the IOC's vice president, said Rio's grounds are "the worst I have experienced" and that the prep is behind "in many, many ways" — even more so than Athens was in 2004. To help soothe delayed construction problems in the troubled country, the IOC has begun embedding experts in the host city to help completion.

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Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.