The Olympic Games will be hosted by a South American country for the very first time. After years of arduous efforts and planning, Brazil was finally declared able to host what is considered as the major international sporting event of the world.

As soon as the announcement was made, at the same time that we could see many people celebrating, supporting and welcoming this extraordinary sign of progress, we could also notice many other skeptical people expressing concerns about the event and the earnestness of its organization. For them, the better would be to keep one close eye on it in order to avoid lack of transparency and corruption on different levels.

Despite these highly controversial issues, the truth is that the competition for hosting an iconic sporting tournament, as the Olympics, became a political and economic battlefield between countries, very often with presidents and leaders of nations personally attending. The victory guarantees to the winner a tremendous boost to the economy and a spectrum of huge positive impacts. Aside the increased prestige and global influence in the international community, it means a great opportunity for businesses of all sizes and sectors.

One of the main reasons behind the International Olympic Committee decision on bringing the games to Brazil in 2016 is its successful history of hosting international sporting events - for instance, Pan American Games in 1963 and 2007, in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, respectively, with many thousands of competitors and spectators.

The concrete results of those events proved definitely Brazil's ability to carry out the demanding tasks involved in such significant competitions: political commitment and capacity to organize the infrastructure required, apart from other important qualities as natural taste for sports and numerous tourist attractions to seduce visitors.

Brazil and the host city, Rio de Janeiro, can benefit considerably from the Olympics in several ways. It is especially worth mentioning some major impacts on infrastructural investments and tourism (arrivals and receipts), not only during the games, but including the periods before and after the competitions. Thus, the impacts assessments should consider benefits from the construction phase of the project as improvements of venues, facilities and transport infrastructure that also will provide value for many years after the games, that is, the long-term legacy for future generations.

Additionally, one could expect significant effects on employment rates, with jobs creation in a range of areas - industries (that supply visitors, athletes, officials and media professionals needs) and services related to the increased tourism levels (hotels, restaurants and entertainment, for example).

With regard to specific matters more related to sports practice, there are other important benefits to be considered. For instance, the ambition for winning upgrades performances to meet the competition top levels and, consequently, stimulates investments on planning and technology development, among other substantial results.

The potential combination of all these effects is very complex to determine and assess through numbers, nevertheless the benefits are highly expected. Still, it may be too early to identify the sum of direct and indirect impacts from staging of the games, then we can only speculate on them. However, the fact is that Olympics are an amazing project full of opportunities from an economic, social and cultural point of view. Of course, it implies responsabilities and risks as well. After all, we live in the context of a global economy, where image and reputation are crucial questions. As a consequence, the whole world will be watching how our country deals with security, human rights and integration of civil society, just to mention some major issues.

I believe that, yes, Rio could greatly benefit from the Olympics. I agree with the argument that "It is especially worth mentioning some major impacts on infrastructural investments and tourism (arrivals and receipts), not only during the games, but including the periods before and after the competitions." - The infrastructure is the a long-lasting benefit, as we have seen in the South Africa's World Cup - larger airports, well-built metro system. Much of the spending on the Olympics will reflect on the daily lives of the city citizens after the event, but it is important not to invest in infrastructure that will probably not be used after the event, as has happened in Atlanta, Georgia (United States) in its Olympics.