Air conditioning in athletes village hit by Rio budget cuts

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The 10,500 athletes at next year's Olympics will feel first-hand the deep budget cuts buffeting the Rio de Janeiro Games: they won't have air conditioning in their bedrooms unless someone pays for it.

Rio Olympic organizers are being hit by a deep recession, a steep fall in the value of the local currency against the dollar, and 10 percent inflation.

There is also a spreading corruption scandal involving state-run oil giant Petrobras that has been part of triggering impeachment proceedings against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

The operating budget is for running the games themselves with income from the IOC, marketing, tickets sales and local sponsorship sales.

A separate capital budget of about 39 billion reals ($10 billion), a mix of public and private money, is being used to build sports venues, roads and other facilities needed to stage the games.

Unrelated to budget cuts, Andrada said organizers had yet to sign a contract with a private energy company to supply electricity for the games, meaning that power may come only from temporary generators.

Andrada acknowledged delays were tied to Brazil's bureaucracy, particularly with the politics and corruption scandals upstaging the Olympics.