Rio de Janeiro: The Rio 2016 Olympic Games celebrated its one year countdown in a samba, bossa nova and carnival centred ceremony as International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach officially invited the world’s athletes to take part in South America’s first Olympics.
As Beijing just won the 2022 Winter Olympics last week, China was on Wednesday also invited to attend the ceremony.
“For sure we will come next year. We will come with our friendship, sportsmanship and partnership. We wish our friend good luck. We wish the successful Olympic Games in South America,” Chinese Olympic Committee vice president Yang Shu’an said after accepting the invitation from Bach.
Bach also symbolically handed invitations to the representatives of the National Olympic Committees of Greece, Russia, South Korea, Japan and Brazil. The NOCs represent the country where the Olympic Games originated, the country of the previous host city, and the current Games host cities.
“In exactly one year from now, the eyes of the entire world will be on Brazil,” Bach said. “We are confident now that these Olympic Games will amaze the world. The Brazilians will show to the whole world your unique combination of passion and efficiency.”
After suffering from the delayed preparation before the 2014 World Cup, Brazil and Rio decide to take lessons from that. Rio’s mayor Eduardo Paes said on Wednesday that the Olympic preparations are all running on time and under budget, and Rio will prove Brazil’s capacity to keep its promises.
In addition to the formal presentation of invitations to the NOCs, the ceremony also included a lively selection of songs about Rio sung by well-known local artists. The show took the audience on a musical journey into the heart of samba, showcasing an exclusive selection of hits and giving a special taste of the Rio Carnival.
“We want to show that we are capable of doing things on time, that Brazil is not a country where everything ends up over budget, everything ends up late,” Paes said on Wednesday adding: “We are literally making a miracle happen here.”
Paes said construction work at Barra Olympic Park — the games’ main venue cluster — was 82 per cent complete.
Meanwhile, the Olympic Stadium is at 79 per cent, the golf course at 98 per cent, the athletes’ village at 89 per cent and the aquatic stadium at 81 per cent, according to organisers.
Despite ongoing concerns about water quality at the sailing, rowing and canoeing venues, Paes said the games had prompted a citywide transformation.
“I am doing what mayors before me promised but did not deliver,” he said.
“Don’t come here wanting Swiss, Swedish or Danish levels of development, we are not there — but we have advanced a lot in recent years,” he added.
Paes was joined at the press conference by Rio 2016 organising committee president Carlos Nuzman, who fended off questions about water quality amid reports that Guanabara Bay remains strewn with rubbish and sewage.
“We have heard from athletes that have swum with fish, so there are some discrepancies,” Nuzman said.
Paes and Nuzman also played down the impact of Brazil’s economic malaise, which has coincided with a sprawling corruption scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras.
“At this moment, when all of Brazil is stopped, the city of Rio is forging ahead,” Paes said, adding: “Rio City Hall has been doing its homework over the past years.”
