This Friday (August 5), Rio de Janeiro has started its countdown for the five years still remaining for the 2016 Olympic Games, with the hope that this event shall represent a transformation of the city, and also the desire to project a revamped image of Brazil.
“The responsibility of organizing excellent Olympic Games is enormous”, the President of the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB), Carlos Arthur Nuzman, said this Friday, at a ceremony held at the Palácio da Cidade, the seat of the Rio de Janeiro City Hall.
For this Saturday, there are plans to open the first construction work for the 2016 Olympic Games, which is the Athletes’ Park, a coexistence space dedicated to sportspeople who shall be staying in the city for the competitions.
This venue, constructed close to the future Olympic Village, is in the neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca that, in 2016, shall be home to about half the sporting events and also the international press center. “Rio 2016 attracts investments and makes the city very well-known. We now have a team of 170 collaborators, and these should be 260 by the end of the year”, Mr. Nuzman highlighted.
In his speech, Mr. Nuzman praised the security policy that has been pushed ahead by the authorities, including the pacification of the “favelas” formerly dominated by the drug trade, to ensure security during the hosting of the 2016 Olympic Games.
The city mayor, Eduardo Paes, has also stressed the positive consequences that this event shall bring for the city of Rio. In his opinion, one of the legacies of the Games shall be the improvement of communications and also of the public transport network.
"We need to create a culture so that Brazil can be a country which can set clear objectives, and thus bury our reputation that we are not able to carry out a major challenge”, said Mr. Paes, in an auditorium packed with national authorities and Brazilian athletes.
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04/05 | News
