Bazar Bizarre

What happens in the Village after the games are over? Take a wild guess! It's time for the Bazar Bizarre!

This 'bazar' is a huge black market in front of the athlete's dining hall where athletes and volunteers exchange competition shirts, track suits, caps, shoes, volunteer uniforms, etc. I even saw a hockey goal keeper exchanging his glove with a runner from Kiribati. Do they even know what hockey is in Kiribati???

It's a big mess! Imagine people from 200 different countries and cultures gathering in a unorganised manner to exchange stuff. Most don't understand each other and most have different approaches to a market place. European markets tend to be a bit more polite and quiet, whereas a Middle Eastern, African or South American market are very loud and agressive.

A young Dutch hockey girl tried to exchange a short, but ran away on the border of tears. When I asked her what the problem was, she just sobbed: "I want to exchange my short, but they are all screaming and grabbing me...". Poor girl. I offered my assistance as a 'veteran' South American market visitor, but she had lost her appetite.

Then there was this Korean judge who tried to exchange his uniform. Judges mostly wear a two-piece suit. Problem is that not only do very few athletes have a need for a suit, but competition suits are often in these horrible pastel colours. His was some aquamarine blue. Probably looked good at the venue, but makes you look like a clown in the real world. Needless to say, he wandered around for some 4 hours without any luck...

As with any market, the different items have different values. Track suits are the most 'expensive', especially if it is of a major country. These often are from top brands and with better quality. Popular items are from the US, Great Britain, Canada, Japan, Italy and Germany.

Scarcity is also a value driver. As the Americans were mostly stationed outside the Village, their uniforms were scarce. Also the Jamaican stuff was scarce as they had mostly left, even before the Closing Ceremony. The fact that they're sponsored by Puma and have nice contrasting colours also increases their value.

The Dutch items were also very popular for two reasons: the bright orange colours always attract attention and the Dutch athletes mostly held on to their uniforms for emotional purposes. For example, the girl I mentioned earlier was only offering her training shorts. In Holland we call that: "Voor een dubbeltje op de voorste rij willen zitten" (="trying to get a front row seat for a penny").

And then... then there were the Brazilians! What can I say? Anybody who has lived in Brazil will immediately smile when reading this. I know I had to!

The Brazilians are serious professional black market players. In Brazil, wherever there's an opportunity to sell something outside the normal channels, you can bet someone will jump on top of it. Same here.

They came strong! Very strong! And they weren't looking for exchanging. They were there to SELL and SELL only! And sell they did! About 40 or so (including the entire womens football team and coaches) showed up with bags and bags full of Brazilian Olympic clothing. It was organised chaos!

The coaches were directing the players across the market place, screaming and shouting. I think they did more directing on the market place than during the Olympic Football final. Shirts and jackets were going for anything between 15 and 40 euros, including the Nike stuff. The entire Brazilian delegation is sponsored by their local sports brand Olympikus, apart from the football team which has a contract with Nike.

If someone had bought something for 20 euros and someone else offered 25, they found a way to strip the original buyer of the item to sell it to number two for 25. They did it so cunningly, that the original buyer ended up with something else without even being upset by it. I tried taking some pictures, but also here they were very alert. Whenever a camera was in view they pretended to rub their forehead, so they wouldn't be recognisable on the picture. You never know whether that pic ends up in a Brazilian newspaper.

I just stood there watching the scene for an hour or so with a huge smile on my face. Bazar Bizarre Brasileiro!

Roberto

PS: The relay team decided against the bodypaint for two reasons: the answer from the IAAF was open ended regarding permission and 2 runners didn't want to do it to avoid breaking their concentration.