Gold, silver and bronze are the colors everyone talks about, but for sports planners, the Olympics hold a different significance: the numbers they generate. From cost of hosting to visitor numbers, to even the offbeat figures (32 tons of dead fish in the harbor? 26,000 cases of Zika?), here is a breakdown, courtesy of our friends at WalletHub.
$11.5B – Estimated cost of hosting the 2016 Rio Olympics. (Just as a side note: Yowza.)
4,924: Medals up for grabs, across 42 disciplines in 28 sports
500,000: International travelers expected to journey to Rio
0: Number of times South America has ever hosted an Olympics
10,500-plus: Athletes competing (from 206 countries, including the first-ever refugee team.)
37: Venues (32 in Rio proper and five in outlying cities)
85,000: Security personnel scheduled to work the Rio Games (more than twice as many as the 2012 London Olympics)
26,000: Cases of Zika virus reported in Rio in the first three months of 2016
32 Tons: Dead fish expected to be removed from the rowing and canoeing lagoon before the water-based activities take place.
16 Years: Age of the youngest members of Team USA, gymnast Laurie Hernandez and hurdler Sydney McLaughlin - both from New Jersey.
52 Years: Age of the two oldest Olympic team members: Equestrians Beezie Madden and Phillip Dutton. (Olympic medalist Dara Torres always did say never to put an age limit on your dreams.)
Five: Number of Olympic Games that Michael Phelps has qualified for. (He has won 22 medals to date.)
555: Number of athletes on Team USA
3.6 Billion: Global viewers of the Games.
85: Percentage of viewers who are likely to look at the games on a second screen.
$1 Billion: Amount NBC has already made on domestic ad sales for the Games (it spent $1.2 billion to secure the media rights)
Bonus numbers, these from Sports Destination Management’s poll asking website visitors how they thought the Games would turn out:
0: Percentage who thought the Games would go off without a hitch.
18.52: Percentage who thought there might be some minor glitches.
25.93: Percentage who thought there would be significant problems throughout the Games
55.56: Percentage of visitors who thought the Rio Olympics would be a complete disaster.
Let the Games begin.
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