Raucous Brazil fans turn deaf ear to Olympic spirit (Reuters)

By Paulo Prada and Drazen Jorgic RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Olympic athletes and visitors might be forgiven if they feel like they accidentally stepped into one of Brazil’s notoriously raucous football arenas, where insults, boos and outright hostility toward rival teams are common. Be it at boxing, judo, fencing, or even tennis, hometown Brazil fans are treating many Olympic sports as if they were at Flamengo vs. Fluminense, a crosstown Rio rivalry where passions, in addition to spit and occasionally fists, frequently fly. Early on Sunday, as Brazilian fencer Ghislain Perrier, parried lunges by Ma Jianfei, the local crowd jeered the Chinese rival, even though he won.