UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 2, 2016. A series of unhappy events finally resulted in a 50% drop in the number of Ural supporters going to the Rio Olympics this year, Ural Tourism Association Executive Director Mikhail Maltsev informed UrBC.

According to Maltsev, many of the fans decided to stay at home due to both economic factors and the outbreak of the Zika virus disease in South America. News of growing crime rate in Brazil and reports on unfinished Olympic facilities served as an additional scare factor.

Finally, there was the doping scandal on top of all this, which meant Russian supporters could never be sure which of the sportsmen and women from the national team they would see in Rio after all.

It is impossible to determine how many people actually went to Brazil, Maltsev said. It looks, however, like the demand for Olympic travel was only half as great as had been expected.