Rio 2016 Diary: Heading down to the Copa, Copacabana to finally feel the Olympic spirit in Brazil

It’s always interesting to see how each host city handles an Olympics.

I’m not talking about the big issues like venues or transport, more the way in which the locals buy in to hosting the largest sporting showcase on the planet.

This is the fourth Olympic Games I’m covering as a journalist so I have a few with which to compare this latest edition in Rio. It wasn’t until a colleague mentioned it the other day, though, that I noticed something unique about these Games.

If you walk around the city, anywhere outside of a Games venue, you wouldn’t really know that the Olympics had come to town. Sure, inside the venues or on the way to them, the Brazilian crowds are passionately supporting their own athletes, draped in flags or wearing green or yellow clothing, but in the regular streets you don’t really feel it.

Usually hosts go overboard with cashing in on all things Olympics. There are Olympic displays in shop windows, Olympic supermarket specials on everything from frozen food to deodorant with Olympic flavoured ice-cream on offer on the street corners. Not Rio, though.

That may have something to do with the current economic climate in the country and the fact that many were against hosting the Games from the off. In some cases, people are intentionally boycotting Rio 2016.

There is one area that bucks the trend, however, and that’s the iconic Copacabana. The famous 4km stretch of beach and the surrounding streets have well and truly caught the Olympic fever (this should not be confused with a Zika-carrying mosquito).

I decided to walk the entire stretch from Fort Copacabana, where the men’s triathlon took place on Thursday, down to the beach volleyball venue and finally I felt my first bit of Olympic spirit outside of an official venue.

Vendors are selling flags, t-shirts and even gold medals. Buskers were dotted all the way down the seafront which was packed with locals and tourists enjoying the festive vibe and posing for photos in front of the Olympic rings on the beach.

You can’t help feeling just a little bit inspired when you’re swept up in it all – and cheesy as it may be, I have to admit to humming a little Barry Manilow as I walked…