Brazilian official says fans booing foreigners is not right
RIO DE JANEIRO — Olympics officials on Tuesday took exception to Brazilian fans booing athletes from other countries after France’s world champion pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie was booed loudly while dueling a Brazilian vaulter for the gold Monday night.
Brazilian pole vaulter Thiago Silva prevailed and Lavillenie lashed out at fans' behavior following competition.
Mario Andrada, spokesman for the Rio Games, said “we don’t think booing is the right attitude, even when you are in a one-to-one competition and young Brazilian has a chance to beat the world champion. We plan to intensify our dialogue with the Brazilian fans through social networks to make sure that we behave as fans in the proper and elegant manner.’’
While saying he doesn’t want Brazilians to lose their passion, Andrada added, “we’re paying very much attention to the fact that booing is not the right thing to do when you are competing at the Olympic level.’’
IOC spokesman Mark Adams praised Brazilians for their passion, but said, “The one thing we will ask is that passion is channeled in a good way and there are a lot of Brazilian fans absolutely loving these Games in a really good way. We just hope people just channel that kind passion in the right direction for their athletes in a really, really good way.’’
On his final vault of the competition, Lavillenie frowned and offered a thumbs down when boos grew louder.
After losing to Silva and settling for the silver medal, Lavillenie expressed his disgust for the crowd’s booing.
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