Before it was Zika in Rio, now it’s bedbugs in Paris – 10/06/2023 – Marina Izidro

“Bed bug panic sweeps Paris and infestation soars ahead of 2024 Olympics.” “What is Paris doing to solve the bedbug crisis before the Games?”.

Headlines like these, from two major foreign news sites, have been common in recent days (as have disgusting photos and videos that have been circulating). The deputy mayor admitted the problem, called the overreaction “hysteria” and had to make an obvious announcement that the Games were not at risk. “Bedbugs existed before and will exist after the Games,” said Emmanuel Gregoire. Health experts took action, explaining that this has affected almost the entire world because travelers carry the animals in their clothes and suitcases, with greater intensity during the European summer.

Friends who live in Paris told me that they are worrying more, they put clothes to wash as soon as they get home from the street, they pay attention on the metro. But what do the Olympic Games have to do with it? Anything. But it’s always like that. Months before any Olympic edition, there comes that phase where the focus is on the host city. The target is now the 2024 hosts.

There are really important criticisms. In the case of Rio de Janeiro, before the 2016 Olympics it was essential to discuss the pollution of Guanabara Bay – it affected the lives of residents and was the location of sailing competitions. Or public safety, since the city would receive thousands of visitors. Talking about the hosts’ problems can be good because, thanks to the event, investments that should have been made years ago are off the ground.

What drives me seriously is when they link a crisis to the Games without worrying about how it tarnishes the Olympic image or the host city. It happened in Rio with Zika. Having families affected by the virus that causes microcephaly in newborns is a serious public health issue and should attract the attention of authorities. But it was used as justification by golfers who said they would not go to Rio for fear of contamination. Golf was back on the Olympic program, and it is a sport in which competitors are used to tournaments with big prizes.

Blaming Zika seemed convenient (it wasn’t just me who thought so; at the time, British five-time Olympic rowing champion Steve Redgrave said that golfers were using the virus as an excuse). The damage was done. Months before the Rio Games, I went to London and watched a television presenter who had certainly never covered sports in his life, saying that they should be cancelled. Even the World Health Organization defended the maintenance of the event. I write this column from China, while covering the Asian Games. This week, a foreign journalist, knowing that she was Brazilian, mentioned the Zika case. I told him the story of golf.

It’s never been proven, but I suspect I’ve been bitten by a bed bug. It was in Singapore, when I attended the first Youth Olympic Games in 2010. The doctor first said that the cause of my red spots on my stomach was the heat – I explained that I was from Rio and had never had that before. He then said that it could be “bed bugs,” and suggested that I change hotels.

Before Paris 2024, let us have more news focusing on issues that matter to the Games and to those who live in the host country. Without even adding bugs to the Olympics bill.

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