Fireworks and confetti filled the air over Copacabana beach on a Friday morning last month and 30,000 people, many wearing the national colours of green and yellow, leapt and danced for joy as Rio de Janeiro won its bid to hold the 2016 Olympic Games.
It was, as many pointed out, an historic moment. Coming soon after news that the country had emerged from a short recession, apparently shrugging off the effects of the global crisis, it seemed to confirm that after years of underperformance and self-doubt, Brazil’s time had come at last.
