Look, I’m not going to turn this into a thread arguing about murder rates, but there has been more than enough published on what a joke some of the purported stats are. Many drug related murders and crimes in Rio aren’t even reported as homicides, so the stats are quite deceiving at best and still show how dangerous it s. I don’t know what years you are referring to, but Washington DC and New Orleans, at their worst, are not as bad as Rio (and I don’t recall New Orleans or DC being in the running for the 2016 Olympics, both of which I would think are absurd). If we look towards violent crime in general, it becomes even more insane.
I too wonder if the IOC is biting the hand that feeds them or at least alienating the US considering the revenues that come directly from the US versus anywhere else in the world.