RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil is in a terrible way: There is a Zika epidemic, the economy is in the toilet and a bare-knuckle brawl for the presidency has paralyzed the nation.

But all of the bad news has been temporarily supplanted by an unexpected love affair with the Olympic Games, an event that has softened the hearts of even some of the most hardened cynics who now find themselves swooning with delight and national pride.

Although many people in the poorest areas of Rio still feel that the Olympics are passing them by, a sense of giddiness is palpable across most parts of this city of 6 million. Working-class families dressed in the yellow and green of Brazil’s flag stroll along Copacabana’s beachfront promenade at midnight; fervid spectators have been filling stadiums with deafening cheers; and even some shrill critics who warned of chaos and bemoaned the cost overruns have changed their tune, at least for the moment.

“What a shame I decided to take a vacation out of the city during this period,” wrote Dora Kramer, a columnist for the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo and a self-described Olympic pessimist.

Like many critics, Kramer had complained that the games were inappropriate for a city buckling under crime, rising unemployment and a fiscal crisis that has crippled schools, hospitals and local police departments.

“Rio is a marvel,” she wrote.

The euphoria jumped a notch on Monday, when Brazil earned its first gold medal of the games, in judo. For many, the pride was especially poignant because the winner, Rafaela Silva, is a black woman who grew up in the City of God, one of Rio’s most impoverished favelas, or slums.

“Everyone in my neighborhood is filled with excitement, and people are just happier,” said Fabio Costa dos Santos, 47, an unemployed City of God resident temporarily working at a Coca-Cola kiosk in the Olympic Village.

The past few days have not been entirely halcyon. On Wednesday, as a chilly rain doused the city, Brazilians absorbed the news that the Senate had voted to hold an impeachment trial for their suspended president, Dilma Rousseff. And despite an enormous security presence, the city’s penchant for lawlessness has not been completely stanched, with gunbattles between drug dealers and police terrorizing residents of Complexo do Alemão, a sprawling collection of favelas.

Those able to afford tickets to the games have also found reasons to grumble. Food at some Olympic venues has been in short supply, and long security lines have caused some spectators to miss the events they had paid to see. A confounding chemical reaction that turned the diving and polo pools an unsettling shade of green has left many shaking their heads.

But these and other episodes have so far failed to burst the celebratory bubble. In some two dozen interviews, Rio residents and visitors from other parts of Brazil marveled at their government’s ability to pull off a complex international sporting event without a serious mishap.

Shift in sentiment

Even with seven days to go before the closing ceremony, Brazilians said their fears of a terrorist attack have eased considerably. So, too, have worries that rampant street crime and transportation gridlock would mar the event and embarrass their country, the first in South America to host the games.

“Before they started, I thought the Olympics were only about construction noise, disruption and holes in the ground,” said Marina de Souza Rolim, 91, a retired teacher and lifelong Carioca, as Rio residents are known. “Now I can see this is a beautiful thing.”

The shift in sentiment occurred overnight, inspired by an opening ceremony on Aug. 5 that was widely met with approval.

It helps that expectations had been low, but many Brazilians said they were wowed by the parade of celebrities and well-crafted numbers that lionized the nation’s rich history and exuberant culture.

Even left-leaning naysayers were cheered by the nod to Brazil’s stain of slavery, the paean to Rio’s favelas and the appearances of Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, musical giants who back Rousseff.

Many were also proud that the ceremony was done on a shoestring, showcasing the Brazilian talent for gambiarra, the art of improvising on the cheap.

The turnaround in national sentiment has been striking. In a poll taken in July, nearly two-thirds of Brazilians said hosting the games would hurt the country, and only 16 percent expressed enthusiasm. The hostility was so intense that protesters repeatedly tried to halt the torch relay with stones and buckets of water as it traveled across the country.

On the night of the opening ceremony, an anti-Olympics protest that took place near the stadium ended violently, with police lobbing tear gas at an unruly klatch of demonstrators.

Carlos Henrique Carvalho Ferreira, 29, a doctoral student at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said that he and many of his friends were initially opposed to the city’s hosting the Olympics, but that he had a change of heart after unexpectedly landing cheap tickets to beach volleyball, field hockey and water polo events.

“With so many tourists in the city, it feels like an extended holiday, yet it’s been calmer than Carnival or New Year’s Eve,” he said. “We want to enjoy the moment, but at the same time, we feel a bit guilty.”

At a time of intense political polarization, with liberals and conservatives battling over the future of Rousseff, Brazilians say the Olympics have helped ease the divisions, even if temporarily.

“We are in a very difficult and vulnerable moment right now, and these Olympic Games have united everyone,” said Mariana Negrini, 42, who runs a small hotel in the interior state of Goiás. “Instead of us versus them, it feels as if we are one.”

Looking forward

Although she has no money for tickets, Mayara Matheus da França Amorim, 27, an unemployed telecommunications analyst, said she was enjoying the free parties and the ebullient crowds of international visitors who have renewed her faith in a wounded nation.

“It’s reminded me how hospitable and friendly we are,” she said amid the thrum of sidewalk buskers, carousing Europeans and startup volleyball games on Copacabana Beach. “And it lets me forget how tough my life is.”

But soaring highs often give way to nasty hangovers. Last weekend, amid free-flowing cocktails at a hilltop mansion in the city’s Santa Teresa neighborhood, Dudi Machado, an editor at large for Harper’s Bazaar Brazil, said he was bracing for what will happen after the athletes and spectators go home.

“The Olympics have given us hope in gloomy times, restored our pride and reminded us what we Brazilians are really good at,” he said as the host, a prominent socialite, paraded through the crowd with an Olympic torch raised above her head. “I’m worried about the comedown because there’s going to be a vacuum after this, and it’s going to be bad.”