500 days to go until the 2016 Olympic Summer Games, Rio de Janeiro enters the final preparation stage in order to get ready for the world’s biggest sporting event both in terms of facilities and infrastructure and athletic preparedness. According to the Local Organizing Committee deadlines, dates and budget will all be met, but there is not much room for issues to arise.
In 500 days the 2016 Olymic Games will start in Rio, photo courtesy of Rio 2016.
“Rio is getting ready for the party and for the Games. We will deliver everything we promised, but we are at a stage where we need to be very attentive. There are only 500 days left and if make a mistake, we will not have time to fix it,” the Organizing Commitee’s director of communication Mário Andrada told the press.
According to Andrada, all sporting facilities are more than thirty percent ready and the majority of them are over fifty percent built.
- See more at: http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-sports/final-olympic-preparations-on-in-rio-with-500-days-to-go/#sthash.3EU2agvZ.dpuf
With 500 days to go, Rio de Janeiro enters the final preparation stage in order to get ready for the 2016 Olympic Summer Games, "the world’s
biggest sporting event both in terms of facilities and infrastructure
and athletic preparedness," according to Lisa Flueckiger of the RIO TIMES. According to the Local Organizing Committee,
deadlines, dates and budget "will all be met, but there is not much room
for issues to arise." Rio 2016 Dir of Communication Mário Andrada said, "Rio is getting ready for the party and for the Games. We will
deliver everything we promised, but we are at a stage where we need to
be very attentive." Andrada said that "all sporting facilities are more than thirty
percent ready and the majority of them are over fifty percent built" (
RIO TIMES, 3/24). In Sydney, Nicole Jeffery wrote some venues "are still behind schedule, including the velodrome, equestrian centre and golf course, where environmental protests have delayed construction in a country with no real attachment to the sport." Australian Chef de Mission Kitty Chiller said that "the water quality of the sailing venue remained an issue, despite attempts and assurances from Brazilian authorities that they would address the pollution problems." Chiller: "That’s a huge concern for us but it’s not one we can do a lot about." Chiller said that medical staff were focused on maintaining the best possible hygiene around the athletes and her hope was that "no one falls in the water" (
THE AUSTRALIAN, 3/25). The AP reported with 500 days to go until the 2016 Olympics begin, Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes acknowledged Monday that "the much-touted goal of cleaning up the city's blighted waterways for the games would likely not be met." Paes said that cleaning up Guanabara Bay, the sewage- and trash-filled waterway where the Olympic sailing events are to be held, "is something that we should have been able to achieve." He added, "It is indeed a wasted opportunity. As a Rio resident, I think it's a shame" (
AP, 3/23).
