After a colourful, carnival-esque opening ceremony, it does not take long for Rio's contrasting identities to hit home.

For the ABC's camera operator Kathryn Ward, reporter James Coventry and me, it took about 10 minutes.

That was the time it took to move from the post-opening-ceremony buzz at Maracana Stadium, to seeing a lifeless body on the road just a few hundred metres away.

We were still comparing notes on not only a great show, but one achieved against the backdrop of world scepticism about how well Rio can pull off these Olympics.

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This wonderfully creative opening ceremony was a great start, and Brazilians in the audience had told us they were proud.

But our fixers and security told us there had been a shooting near their vehicle, and we learnt one male lay dead down the road.

As we drove past a police cordon, we saw a body entangled with a bicycle, draped with a blanket.

As Kathryn Ward said, we can't un-see that.

Early reports are that it was a man shot by others on a motorcycle.

Someone who tweeted to us said he watched it unfold outside his van; that the victim was a kid, shot by a "man in a suit", and that police did not seem too concerned.

We may never know who he was, or how it happened.

Never before has the Olympics been held in the centre of a maelstrom of a crime, corruption, inequality, and a severe political and financial crisis.

And it is getting worse.

Murder numbers spiked in the first half of this year. Police killings are on the rise.

Rio authorities say they admit to the good and the bad.

Cariocans say they hope the Olympics will shine a light on the things to improve in their city, and country.

And so Games visitors to this fascinating, engaging, confronting host city can expect to encounter a touch more reality, than the glossy bubble of Olympic sport.