For the past few Olympic cycles, some of the most suspenseful races have come before the opening ceremony. The event has no formal designation, but it distills to something like this: Can the host city get its act together and scramble to finish off its ambitious preparations before facing international embarrassment?
On the eve of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, local officials were still rounding up stray dogs while doors were being affixed to hotel rooms and plumbers were installing toilet seats in the athletes’ village. In the hours before the Rio Games began in ’16, workers were fixing gas leaks and repairing the recently collapsed main ramp of the sailing venue.
Illustration by Michael Byers
