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RIO DE JANEIRO -- Go to bed, my grandmother implored. Hyun-jin Ryu Jersey . It is late, and these Olympics are very far away.I was 6 years old, a boy in working-class Sao Paulo already obsessed with the Olympics, staying up to watch the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea. Grandmother Lazinha -- we called her Zica -- was right. It was indeed late for a kid. But what she also meant, I understand now, was that no one living in the Brazil of those days was expected to go very far. Nor was my homeland itself.Now the games are here, and with that debut comes a renewed sense of possibility and hope -- a feeling that perhaps Brazil has finally arrived. Yes, there is economic and political turmoil, Zika, crime and the many other blemishes outsiders see. But for us brasileiros, hosting the games itself is like winning gold. As one volunteer, an unemployed engineer, said to me after the opening ceremony: We can do great things here, too.It wasnt always that way.As I watched my first Olympics on TV, Brazil suffered even more than it does now. There was hyperinflation, with everyday items costing up to 600 percent of their worth. After decades of military dictatorship, we had returned to civilian leadership but under an unpopular president we blamed for the economic crisis.A renowned economist referred to us as Belindia, a country where the rich lived like those in prosperous Belgium and the poor like the worst off in India. And yet ... we have always been far more complex, and better, than that.Flash forward to 1992. Im 10. The Olympics were in Barcelona that year and still a personal obsession as I began to dream of a career as a journalist like my uncle. At home in Brazil, my mother was a maid. And a manicurist. And a door-to-door saleswoman. The state school I attended in the South Zone of Sao Paulo was not that bad, but others in the same region were more a territory for gangs than places for learning. Brazil was still stumbling.That year, our Congress impeached President Fernando Collor over a money-for-influence scheme. Protesters then, like now, took to the streets to demand an end to government corruption. Those Olympics in Spain were truly a world away for us. With inflation still high, my mother would run to the supermarket each payday to stock up on supplies for the month, not knowing if the cost of milk might skyrocket the very next day.In those next few years, change did come. Brazil adopted a new currency and an economic plan that brought some stabilization and growth.By the time the Atlanta Games opened in 1996, my family had saved so much that we started a little restaurant near Rio de Janeiro. College, and my dreams of reporting, seemed closer. When Sydney played Olympic host in 2000, I was teaching English and taking a college preparatory course. Two years later, I managed to enter a good private university. Then came Athens in 2004, and the chance at a sports internship that included a special assignment: Helping to cover the Olympics from afar.From 2004 to 2008, Brazil improved so much that we started feeling overconfident. Social programs and a minimum wage policy dragged tens of millions out of poverty. We felt as if we were about to become a global player. Amid a commodities boom, we spent big on flat-screen TVs, cars and expensive vacations. Lost your job? You could get another quickly.Thats what led me to wave goodbye to steady work and pay my own way to Beijing for the Summer Games of 2008. I wasnt even accredited to cover sports, so instead I wrote about protests and Brazilian spectators as a freelancer. All I wanted was to tick that box and tell my grandmother that the Olympics were indeed far, but I could now go there. And so I did.It only really sank in that I was at the Olympics the night Usain Bolt won gold in the 100 meters, setting a world record. I was in an area of Beijing called Sanlitun, and I celebrated with fans from all nations. In a way, that seemed to be what the Olympics are all about: an excuse to bring different people together.When I returned home, the global economic crisis began and Brazil, like everyone else, was hit -- although not nearly as hard as others. When the world sneezed, Brazil usually caught pneumonia. Now the world had pneumonia, and Brazil only a cold.Another remarkable thing happened that year: Rio de Janeiro was picked as a finalist to host the 2016 Olympics, alongside Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid. In modern times, Brazil had bid -- and lost out -- on the games three other times, for 2000, 2004 and 2012. We Brazilians never thought we really had a shot, especially against President Barack Obamas city of Chicago.So on Oct. 2, 2009, when then-IOC President Jacques Rogge opened the envelope and the card inside read Rio de Janeiro, back in my newsroom in Sao Paulo I yelled: YEAH!Because I walked the same rocky but successful path of so many Brazilians of my generation, I never felt that the International Olympic Committee was making a concession when it awarded the games to Rio. We did not get this honor because the IOC took pity on us. It was a deserved victory for a country that was more promising then than it is now. As a nation, Brazil should have the opportunity to show our rise, resilience and, yes, the shortcomings that remain.Friday night, when the fireworks went off and the games of the 31st Olympiad were declared open, I saw it all from the press box -- where I helped write the story of the first Olympic opening ceremony in my beloved Brazil. I felt proud, but tense. I wanted us to put on a good show. We didnt hide our flaws even as we exhibited what we do best through our love of music and dance, and in the message about our environment.Brazil celebrated the Olympics as it needs to be celebrated.My grandmother did not live to see the games come to our native soil, but I am sure that if she were here, shed smile knowing that the Olympics are no longer so very far, and that Brazilians like me helped make faraway so close.---Mauricio Savarese is an Associated Press reporter who writes about politics, crime and, yes, sports. He is a native of Sao Paulo, based now in Rio de Janeiro. He has covered, in person, three Olympics: Beijing, London and, now, Rio. Los Angeles Dodgers Pro Shop . The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling "puts an end to my dreams of being a top player," the 27-year-old Troicki said in a statement. "I worked my entire life for it, and it has been taken away from me in one afternoon by a doctor I didnt know," said Troicki, whose ranking peaked at No. Los Angeles Dodgers Gear . Ivanovic was leading 7-5, 1-0 when Hantuchova withdrew after falling 0-40 behind in the second game. The match started slowly for Ivanovic, who surrendered her first two serves as Hantuchova took a 5-3 lead. https://www.cheapdodgersonline.com/ . Rinne played two periods in his first game since left hip surgery in early May. Gabriel Bourque scored 3:07 into the second period and Austin Watson tallied 5:15 later for Nashville. Nico Rosberg eased Mercedes fears about its pace in Singapore by topping second practice, though teammate Lewis Hamiltons disjointed session ended prematurely with a hydraulics issue.It was in FP2 last year where Mercedes struggles first became apparent in a weekend which saw the team qualify nearly 1.5s off the pole and finish off the podium for the first time in the V6 era. The team came into the weekend hoping to have solved those issues and the evening session under the lights suggested progress has been made, with Rosbergs 1:44.152 a full 0.3s quicker than Kimi Raikkonen in the quickest Ferrari.Mercedes optimism will be tempered by Hamiltons session, however, with the reigning world champion aborting his first qualifying simulation and then enduring a messy series of laps of the ultra-soft tyres afterwards. He then returned to the pits, where the cover was taken off his engine, something Mercedes later confirmed was to investigate a hydraulic alert while on the circuit. The team decided the issue could not be resolved in the final 15 minutes and he did not return to the circuit. It means the world champion missed out on the long runs at the end of the session -- a significant blow in Singapore as FP2 is the only practice session which is considered relevant to the rest of the weekend as the full session takes place under floodlights.?Max Verstappen finished third as Red Bull struggled to live up to its favourites tag, though he and teammate Daniel Ricciardo both appeared to struggle to get the most out of their cars in the final sector. Sebastian Vettel could only manage fifth, though he clearly did not nail a perfect lap and finished 0.7s off teammate Raikkonen. Force Indias Nico Hulkenberg finished an impressive sixth for Force India, suggesting once aagain the team has made huge strides in development in recent months. Steve Howe Dodgers Jersey. Hamilton finished seventh and only completed 20 laps.Carlos Sainz finished eighth for Toro Rosso at a circuit which could be the last chance for a strong result in 2016. Fernando Alonso finished ninth, two positions down on where McLaren expects to qualify tomorrow, though Friday practice is rarely an accurate predictor of every position on the grid. However, the Spaniard pulled up at Turn 16 at the end of the session with what he reported to be a gearbox issue, which could have ramifications for the Spaniard later in the weekend. Daniil Kvyat rounded off the top ten on a weekend he will hope ends his long and painful wait for points.Sergio Perez, who was complaining about issues during the session, had to settle for 11th ahead of Jenson Button and Esteban Gutierrez. Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas took the next two spaces and, though Williams often makes a big step forward on Saturday it seems to have a lot of work to do to catch Force India overnight. Kevin Magnussen and Valtteri Bottas finished 16th and 17th, ahead of Felipe Nasr, who earned the wrath of Ricciardo late in the session for holding him up after exiting the pit lane.Romain Grosjean finished 19th but lost his rear wing early in the session, spinning out of the last corner and tapping the barrier. He finished ahead of Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein. Manors Esteban Ocon rounded off the timing screens a full three seconds down, though he was lucky to return his car to the garage in one piece after clouting the wall on two occasions at the end of his ultra-soft qualifying simulation. ' ' '