抖阴ap

RIO DE JANEIRO — Despite the scary headlines that have served as caution signs along the pockmarked road to the first Olympics held in South America, tourists and locals are finding the iconic shoreline of Copacabana a pretty cool place to be. Whether the Rio Summer Games turn out to be as fun and inviting will be determined over the next 17 days, starting with Friday’s opening ceremonies, but no one Thursday seemed the least bit worried about mosquitoes, dead bodies, pollution, security or unfinished construction projects at the world-famous beach.

A group of Tunisian athletes strolled down Avenida Atlantica, taking in the curve of the shoreline. Cyclists from Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador stopped for pictures. Tourists posed in front of large Olympic rings and sipped sweet juice from chilled coconuts. Up and down the beach were spirited games of beach volleyball, footvolley (played with a soccer ball on beach-volleyball courts) and paddleball. Swimmers and stand-up paddle-boarders seemed to think the water was perfectly safe.

Elaborate sandcastles etched with the Olympic rings and topped with miniature replicas of Rio’s famous Christ the Redeemer statue begged to be photographed — for a price.聽“This work depends on your contribution,” said a sign at one, meaning visitors were welcome to photograph it for 20 reals ($6.33). Or, with minimal haggling, half that.

The concerns over Rio’s readiness to host the Games and the safety of those who are here to compete and spectate are real. The water in the bay really is dangerously polluted. There have been dead bodies, and visitors must be vigilant to avoid becoming victims of robbery, kidnap and worse. Brazil is in a major recession, which caused it to slash spending on Games that were intended to showcase the land of samba to the world.

“We are all looking forward to (Friday’s) opening ceremony, the athletes and sport taking over,” International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said Thursday. “We will be welcomed by an enthusiastic Brazilian public. We are addressing some last-minute challenges, as is normal. Our cooperation with the organizing committee and the city is going very well.”

Australian athletes have complained about their lodging, but U.S. athletes have seemed pleased with their accommodations, facilities and venues.

“We all love being in Rio,” said American gymnast Danell Leyva, a native of Cuba who came to the U.S. as a baby when his parents fled the Castro regime. “I feel like I’m back at home in Miami. The weather’s amazing, the people are amazing. As far as the concerns that other people bring up, like the Zika virus, we know that the IOC and the USOC are taking the necessary measures to ensure that, not only the U.S. but the rest of the athletes are safe so we don’t have to worry about it. Because of that, we’re not worried for any of those concerns that the outside world may have.”

Brazil had nothing to do with the other major cloud hanging over these Games — proof of massive state-supported doping in Russia and what to do about its athletes here after a World Anti-Doping Agency investigation that was released less than three weeks ago. That report followed German TV expos茅s and a previous WADA probe of Russian track and field. It’s still unknown how many Russian athletes will be banned as the IOC sorts through the mess.

“We trust people to realize the difficulties we are in,” Bach said. “We did our best to address the situation in a way that allows us to protect clean athletes all over the world.”

In the famous Maracana soccer stadium built for the 1950 World Cup, the party heats up Friday night with the opening ceremonies.

“The world is very tense,” said Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles (“City of God”), the ceremony’s creative director. “The political situation is also highly tense here in Brazil. I think in the United States with (Donald) Trump, England with the Brexit, and so on, the whole world is under this tension. This is shown in the ceremony, and the solution comes through tolerance.”