A blast shook the area near the finish line of the road cycling event at the 2016 Rio Olympics, prompting the bomb squad to investigate
The Olympics road cycling event at Rio 2016 is one of the first medals to be handed out with the men’s race taking place on Day 1 of the Games. While the coverage of the race continued on in the heart of the race, though, there was reportedly a bit of a scare near the finish line of the race.
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According to reports from the Associated Press, there was a blast that went off near the finish line for the road cycling race at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Taking precaution with the scare regarding the blast, the bomb squad was then called in to investigate.
This wasn’t just someone setting off fireworks or something trivial, for what it’s worth. Reports from the area say that the ground shook after the blast and definitely shook up spectators and members of the press nearby.
While it’s great that Rio is taking action in sending the bomb squad to investigate what happened, the most concerning nugget from all of this is that the Olympics decided not to stop or reroute the race and let the competitors continue like normal.
Considering that the riders were only about 70 km away from the finish line when the reported blast occurred, that seems like a more than curious decision.
Hopefully this is an isolated incident that means absolutely nothing for what’s to come in Rio over the next 2.5 weeks. More importantly, though, let’s hope this causes officials at the Olympics to make the areas around events even more secure.