The nerve center of most Summer Games is an “Olympic Park,” typically a collection of a half-dozen or so sports facilities clustered in one place. Sounds great, right? Here’s the dirty little secret: most Olympic parks are actually in a rather sterile part of a world-class city. Let’s all gather in a giant, overheated parking lot in the dead of summer! [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] In Rio, for example, the Barra Olympic Park—which hosted basketball, gymnastics, swimming, gymnastics, basketball, wrestling, diving, and a few other events—was located an hour from Copacabana Beach, past a road dotted by condos and car dealerships.