To the Editor:
Re “An Olympic Catastrophe,” by Vanessa Barbara (Sunday Review, July 3), and “What Makes Brazilians Sick,” by Jules Boykoff (Op-Ed, nytimes.com, July 18): We would like to clarify for your readers some facts about the 2016 Rio Olympics, considered by the International Olympic Committee to be the most inclusive and expected to leave the largest legacy in the Games’ history.
For every dollar spent on arenas, five dollars was invested in legacy work — infrastructure projects such as the revitalization of a large area in downtown; the expansion of the mass transportation network; the increase of sanitation in Rio’s poorest areas; the regeneration of slums where 630,000 people live; the construction of 80,000 low-income housing units; and the creation of new leisure areas in the suburbs.