Dangerous Games

To secure the 2016 Olympics back in 2009, Rio promised to clean up its water. That would have been a relief not just to the world's athletes but also to Rio de Janeiro's residents, who live with dirty, dangerous waterways congested with raw sewage and castoffs ranging from shoes to couches.

But it never happened. The Brazilian city's water quality is so poor that its Guanabara Bay is a confirmed source of antibiotic-resistant super-bacteria. That people live amid these conditions - and that Olympic athletes are being asked to sail, row, and swim in them - is appalling.

Add to that Brazil's inability to contain the Zika virus as thousands of athletes and hundreds of thousands of spectators prepare to converge on the country. The Games, scheduled to open on Aug. 5, could accelerate the global spread of the outbreak from its Brazilian epicenter. Zika has been linked to devastating birth defects such as small, underdeveloped brains, known as microcephaly.

So severe is the threat from the virus, which is spread by the mosquito Aedes aegypti and sex, that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel warning advising pregnant women to avoid the Olympics and warning others to take such precautions as using insect repellent and condoms. Led by New York University medical ethicist Arthur Caplan, a growing group of distinguished health experts, physicians, and scientists has asked the International Olympic Committee to postpone or move the Games.

American cyclist Tejay van Garderen has taken himself out of the competition due to concern for his pregnant wife. American soccer goalie Hope Solo has said she might confine herself to her room when not playing. Irish athletes were warned to return home as soon as they finish competing. British long jumper Greg Rutherford plans to leave a vial of frozen sperm at home because he wants more children, and the Chicago Bulls' Pau Gasol said he might do the same. Alluding to violence in Rio and the country's political instability - President Dilma Rousseff has been suspended pending impeachment proceedings - the Brazilian soccer hero Rivaldo urged athletes and spectators to stay away.

The U.S. Olympic Committee has advised competitors to make that decision for themselves. That's a cop-out. Many athletes have been focused on these Olympics, this summer, for much of their lives and won't have another such opportunity.

The International Olympic Committee, which demands so much of athletes, at least owes them safe venues. There are plenty of sports facilities on the planet that aren't exposed to deadly viruses and super-bacteria. If the Games must be spread over more than one nation or postponed long enough to assure the safety of athletes and spectators, so be it.

This should be a lesson to the IOC, which could have seen that Brazil was a better candidate for humanitarian relief than it was for the Olympics at least two years ago, when scientific studies and news reports made it obvious that the water was unfit for competition.

The confluence of disease, pollution, and economic and political trouble makes it clear that Brazil will be hard pressed to rise to this occasion. Olympic officials must do so.