The road out of Rio is both rewarding to American sports in general but also dangerous. This year’s events is just a testament to how strong our country really is. How we find the money to support good healthy events to support our youth and encourage them to excel and succeed in anything they want to. How our government is good and trustworthy. How we were able to have hundreds of Americans competing in the events. Many American athletes also competed for other countries as well. It is sad to see that much of the youth in Rio is abandoned and that many of the great sports pavilions that Olympic money builds after the events are simply locked and abandoned in most countries while the poor citizens still have nothing much to do. Why strive for a medal anyway?

Yes Olympic medals are worth more than their weight in gold. Olympic medals have not been made out of solid gold since 1912. Today’s Gold Medals are only 1.34% Gold the rest is Sterling Silver. Taking home the Gold Medal today is worth about $564.00.  Some Gold Medals wind up being worth more than others. The medal from Black Jesse Owen’s track and field event where he ran better than  all of Hitler’s men in 1936 recently got $1.47 Million dollars at auction.  What makes a gold medal valuable is the stories behind the thing. Michael Phelps with the most medals ever and the final five gymnastic girls from this year has legendary stories attributed to their medals making them valuable ones.

 These games at Rio will be awarding 812 medals to people from all over the world. If you are a world class athlete you should have represented Kazakhstan in some event. That country is paying $250,000 to anyone that brings home a gold medal to them. Malaysia awards its winners with a solid gold bar if you bring home a gold medal there. America gives their gold medalists $25,000 that Uncle Sam will tax as income from abroad. So we obviously don’t win here for the money.  Americans’ love fair competition. So how are we going to bring home our 80 or so gold medals home safely to the United States?

The safety of Athletes in Brazil is still a big concern. There is a violent drug war raging just minutes from the Olympic Village which is supposed to be a safe haven for the athletes. It is difficult for the Rio swat teams to keep it safe in the village. There are gangs that dominate Rio’s slums. Some are criminals and some are dirty ex-cops. Gold medalist Brian Lochte claims to have been robbed and mugged for money recently. They were hanging out and getting drunk till 4 A.M. at Club France one of the nightclubs created just for Olympians. How do you get mugged there?

Crimes were happening almost daily throughout the events. Rocks broke windows in an Olympic bus, stray bullets hit an Equestrian venue and a Judo medal winner was mugged and suffered a black eye in the process. It is just a spillover of the vast amount of crime in Rio. This month 5 people on average have been wounded by gun violence each day in Rio. Last week 3 Olympic security officers were shot and killed because they patrolled and turned into gang territory. You really do not want to get lost in Rio.