Security for Rio Olympics needs to be co-ordinated effort

By Jamie Strashin, CBC Sports

Beach volleyball player Sarah Pavan is determined to stay focused on winning a medal at the upcoming Rio Games.

At the same time she is aware of concerns surrounding the security and safety of athletes in Brazil.

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"It's sad. Our world is a crazy place right now but we have been travelling all over the place all summer long," Pavan says. "It makes me so sad to see the things that are happening these days but we have to keep doing our jobs as professionals and try and put that aside when we can."

Pavan says she has worked too hard to let anything derail her at this point.

"We know that security measures are being heightened and everything is being taken care of," Pavan says. "That's not something that I want to worry about because I want to enjoy these Olympics as much as I can."

Pavan and the rest of the beach volleyball team won't be staying in the Athletes' Village. Instead, they will stay closer to Rio's famed Copacabana Beach, where competition runs nearly every day throughout the Games.

"I feel like this sort of thing happens before every Olympics," she says. "There's always a lot of speculation about everything going wrong and they usually end up pretty good."

Violent city

In Brazil, security issues exist on two fronts. Before Rio was awarded the Olympics, it was notoriously one of the most violent cities in the world. This hasn't changed. Consider this: In 2016, 2,000 people have already been murdered in Rio, including 50 police officers.

Brazil is spending hundreds of millions of dollars and hiring thousands of additional security personnel to ensure these Games are safe. But a crippling recession has undermined these efforts as the government has often been unable to pay police salaries and supply basic supplies like gas and paper.

"The criminality in Rio is a big issue. The disparity between people who have a lot of money and those who don't is great," says Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a former senior officer with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). "Also, the local cops are corrupted so it's very difficult at this point to feel totally secure."

Despite this, the goal is to have more than 85,000 security officers deployed, more than double that of London 2012.

It's an indication the global security situation is more precarious today than ever.

"We are living in the most complex, high-velocity threat environment I have ever witnessed in three decades of national security and law enforcement work," says Ray Boisvert, a former assistant director of intelligence at CSIS.

Just this week, Brazil was rocked by the arrest of 12 people suspected of pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group ISIS. Brazil has no history of conflict with militant groups but the upcoming Games have obviously put the country in the spotlight. The arrests are the first-ever related to alleged extreme Islamist terrorism in Brazil.

More than 500,000 people are expected to visit Brazil for the Olympics. And these arrests come a little more than a week after the vicious truck attack in Nice, France that still has the world on edge.

"No one feels safe. Everyone is very worried mainly because Brazil is a country with another spirit. We are not used to this," Brazilian soccer player Junior Negrao told local media. "Our war is another, not on this level of terrorism. It is truly worrying that a suicide bomber could detonate and kill 50 [to] 100 [people]. We want an Olympics for the city of Rio. So today, people are very worried and attentive to everything happening."

Managing risk at a massive event like the Olympic Games is constantly changing. A multitude of security scenarios never contemplated four years ago, or even four months ago, is constantly emerging.

"When I was at CSIS we could have months and months to watch a cell develop, people talking about it, thinking about it, preparing for it," Boisvery says. "Now people can quickly go into action within days."

Juneau-Katsuya says the increase in so-called soft target attacks should concern Olympic officials. He notes the Olympics is a month-long event made up of thousands of public gatherings across a wide geography.

"The so-called Islamic state has demonstrated that large scale attacks are not the most efficient," Juneau-Katsuya says. "A gun attack, a knife attack or an attack with a vehicle is as efficient, if not more to send your message. The number of opportunities [and] the targets are countless."

Keeping Games safe

Experts agree it will take a co-ordinated effort by a web of domestic and international security agencies to keep these Games safe. But athletes and the countries sending them also bear responsibility.

Both Boisvert and Juneau-Katsuya say athletes can't rely too heavily on the briefings they get before heading to Rio.

The tendency of the Canadian Olympic Committee is to minimize the threat and minimize the level of the briefing so athletes can remain focused on competing." adds Juneau-Katsuya.

Both agree athletes themselves must be vigilant.

"Don't travel alone. If you go out make sure you are in a group of three or more, make sure you have an awareness of your surroundings and if something seems bizarre it's because it is bizarre," says Juneau-Katsuya.

Boisvert adds: "Understand the situation you are going into. And understand what 'my escape' route is.  Once you arrive at the village or the scene what do you do if something goes horribly wrong?"

Pavan is doing her best not to think about such things.

"We were down at an event in Brazil in March and we had no problems at all. We felt really comfortable so we have faith that everything will work out," Pavan says. "The only thing we can really control is our performance and how we prepare. Everything else is out of our hands.