Olympics by the numbers
$12 billion: Projected final estimated cost of the Rio Games. (The projected revenue of the Games is a little more than $9 billion. You do the math.)23: Number of gold medals won in Michael Phelps’ unbelievable swimming career.$575,000: Amount Phelps has earned for those gold medals in his swimming career from the United States Olympic Committee, which pays $25,000 per gold. The USOC also pays $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze.$55,000: The expected income tax charge Phelps faces for his brilliant final chapter in Rio that included five golds and a silver.$1,200: The cost of a single Simone Biles leotard for any of her historic gymnastic routines.450,000: Number of condoms provided by the International Olympic Committee for the 11,000 athletes who competed in these Games. Yes, doing the math that’s roughly 41 condoms per athlete over the two weeks.
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Jay GreesonRyan Lochte has been the talking point of the final week of the Olympics.
Despite the pageantry and record-setting performances, sadly Lochte is the lasting image as we pack up our Olympic love in a sporting time capsule and seal it with an "Open in Tokyo, 2020" stamp.
Lochte's story is as much about we as an audience as his audacity and stupidity.
All of the amazing and incredible accomplishments that occurred in Rio, yet we are drawn like a society of moths to the Kardashian flicker of this Olympic flame.
There's the tale of the bad boy, drunken Lochte, who was already three brain cell baskets short of a full load, and the counterstory of the Brazilian authorities, who are to the international policing world what Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane and Boss Hogg were on the local level.
But we latched on to this story, not because Lochte lied and certainly not because he ended the Brazilian fairy tale that he killed tourism there after these Games. Hey, Rio, you average like 12-plus murders a day. A drunken frat boy peeing in the street and lying about it are hardly the reason John Q. Public is skipping your topless beaches.
This is not defending Lochte, who by all accounts is a shady character. But this is not excusing the hosts either, considering the checkered past leading up to the Games - and the uncertain future of the city and country considering the cost of the Olympics - from Rio and Brazil.
These were the Games of the great unknown as we entered them two weeks ago. The facilities were not finished. The security was uncertain. The mosquitos were supposed to be the size of house cats with blood-dripping fangs. The crime and the leadership were questioned. The water - oh, the water, with body parts washing ashore near the beach volleyball venue and all-but-guaranteed viral illness awaiting the swimmers and boaters in the open water events - dominated the headlines.
And for the most part, other than the inexcusable water conditions, the Games were celebration, not catastrophe. This was two weeks of greatness rather than weakness.
But that happened because of the athletes, not the administrators.
We became engrossed in the exchange of the greatest-ever tags, whether you believe Michael Phelps' quantity is more impressive than Usain Bolt's quality, or whether Simone Biles' daring moves were better than Katie Ledecky's monumental dominance. We worried about the U.S. men's basketball team, forgetting that 10 of the 12 best players in the tournament were wearing red, white and blue.
We remember the sportsmanship that was personified by Abbey D'Agostino of the United States and Nikki Hamblin of New Zealand in the middle-distance race when the competitors collided and helped each other finish the race, knowing the exchange cost each of them the chance at fulfilling a dream.
We'll embrace the true joy of Olympians becoming overcome with joy at a bronze medal and realizing that the means to the end - and those who aide in it - are every bit as important as the color of your necklace.
Mostly, we'll forever know that sports always seems to bring out the best in us. From the ultra-elite competitors to the commonality we share as patriots and as fans.
Granted, the Games were not without controversy. Of course, there's Lochte and his incredulous decision to spin a yarn about four drunken dudes urinating at a gas station. But there was even the shady - the Irish Olympic committee is embroiled in a ticket-scalping scandal - to the serious - there was a lot of crime in and around the Games, Lochte's tall tale notwithstanding - and the surreal.
In that vein, maybe the final image from the athletic events of these games was the Mongolian coach so upset with the officiating in his wrestler's match he protested the referee by stripping.
Yes. Stripping. (Side note: Should we be more upset by a sober, paid coach who loses it to the point that he gets almost naked or a drunken, immature swimmer who lied to his parents? Yet, we want to giggle with the Mongolian coach and put Lochte in lock-up.)
It was more excellence than Brazilian excuses, and we enjoyed it immensely, even if we as a country were not watching as much.
Overall, TV numbers were down in double-digit ranges and reportedly dipped as much as 20 percent from the most recent Games from four years ago.
Maybe they can blame that on Lochte, too; we're pretty sure Brazil would be OK with that.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and 423-757-6343. His "Right to the Point" column runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays on A2.