Rio 2016 Beckons !!
All you need to know about Rio Olympics 2016
The quadrennial multi-sports extravaganza beckons athletes and sports lovers from all over the world this year and Rio di Janeiro is the venue. The Games of the XXXI Olympiad will take place from 5th to 21st August. Rio 2016 will have participation of more than 10,500 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), including first time entrants Kosovo and South Sudan, With 306 sets of medals up for contention, the games will feature 28 Olympic sports — including rugby sevens and golf, which were added by the International Olympic Committee in 2009. These sporting events will take place at 33 venues in the host city and at 5 venues in the cities of São Paulo (Brazil’s largest city), Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Brasília (Brazil’s capital), and Manaus.
Venues and infrastructure
There are eighteen existing venues, nine new venues and seven venues that have been constructed for the games specifically which will be removed after the Olympics get over.
Each event will be held in one of four geographically segregated Olympic clusters: Barra, Copacabana, Deodoro, and Maracanã. The Pan American Games were also held at the same places. Several of the venues will be located at the Barra Cluster Olympic Park.
The largest venue at the games in terms of seating capacity is the Maracanã Stadium, officially known as Jornalista Mário Filho Stadium, which can hold 74,738 spectators and will serve as the official Olympic Stadium, hosting the opening and closing ceremonies as well as football finals. Maracanã had also previously served as the venue for the opening ceremony, the kick off match and the final match of the 2014 FIFA Football World Cup in 2014. In addition, five venues outside Rio de Janeiro will host football events, in the cities of Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Manaus, Salvador and São Paulo.
The athletes’ village is claimed to become the largest in Olympic history. Fittings will include about 80,000 chairs, 70,000 tables, 29,000 mattresses, 60,000 clothes hangers, 6,000 television sets and 10,000 smartphones.
Torch Relay:
As is the long-standing tradition, the torch relay began in Greece by lighting the Olympic Flame at the temple of Hera, in Olympia on 21st April 2016. On 27th April the flame was handed over to the Brazilian organizers at a ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. A brief stop was made in Switzerland to visit the IOC headquarters and the Olympic Museum in Lausanne as well as the United Nations Office at Geneva.
The torch relay began its Brazilian journey on 3rd May at the capital Brasília. The torch relay will visit more than 300 Brazilian cities (including all the 26 states capitals and the Brazilian Federal District), and finally it will be brought to the city of Rio de Janeiro, for lighting the cauldron during the 2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony on 5th August.
Opening ceremony
The opening ceremony will take place in the Maracanã Stadium on 5 August 2016 at 8 PM local time; 12 AM (August 6th) GMT, 4:30 AM (August 6th) IST.
A wider list of time zones corresponding to the timings of the opening ceremony can be checked at the following link:
Logo
After a competition out of 139 agencies, the Rio firm Tatíl’s logo was deemed as the winning entry and their design was unveiled as the official logo for the 2016 Olympics on 31st December 2010. The logo represents three figures, in the yellow, green, and blue of the Brazilian flag, joined at the arms and in a triple embrace, with the overall shape reflecting that of Sugarloaf Mountain. The logo was based on four concepts: contagious energy, harmonious diversity, exuberant nature, and Olympic spirit.
Mascot: The official mascots of the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics were unveiled on 24th November 2014. The Olympic mascot Vinicius, named after musician Vinicius de Moraes, carries design traits of mammals and represents Brazilian wildlife.
Closing ceremony
The closing ceremony will also take place at the Maracanã Stadium on 21st August 2016. The timings for the closing ceremony will be the same as the opening ceremony.
Here’s hoping that the games go on without a glitch, despite the challenges being faced at Brazil, and the athletes as well as spectators have the time of their life. We wish all the athletes all the very best!
