Rio de Janeiro 2016

The 2016 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, are a major international multi-sport event to be celebrated in the tradition of the Olympic Games, as governed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The host city of the Games will be Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as announced at the 121st IOC Session (which is also the 13th Olympic Congress) held in Copenhagen, Denmark, on October 2, 2009. They are scheduled to be held from August 5 to 21, 2016, making this the first Summer Olympiad to be actually held entirely during Winter, as the southern hemisphere winter ends on August 31st. However, since Rio is inside the tropics this period will not see "typical" winter weather, while the term "winter" is inappropriate given that the tropics follow a wet and dry season. The 2016 Summer Paralympics will be held in the same city and organized by the same committee, and are scheduled to be held from September 7 to 18. The Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games will be the first held in South America, the third held in the southern hemisphere (the first outside of Australia), and the first Games in a lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) country. Following the games, Africa will be the only inhabited continent to have never hosted an Olympic games.

Bidding

The bidding process for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games was officially launched on May 16, 2007. The first step for each city was to submit an initial application to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by September 13, 2007, confirming their intention to bid. Completed official bid files, containing answers to a 25-question IOC form, were to be submitted by each applicant city by January 14, 2008. Four candidate cities were chosen for the shortlist on June 4, 2008: Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo (which hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics). The IOC did not promote Doha to the Candidature phase, despite scoring higher than selected candidate city Rio de Janeiro, due to their intent of hosting the Olympics in October, outside of the IOC's sporting calendar. Prague and Baku also failed to make the cut.

Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco headed the 10 member Evaluation Commission, having also chaired the evaluation commission for the 2012 Summer Olympics bids. The commission made on-site inspections in the second quarter of 2009. They issued a comprehensive technical appraisal for IOC members on September 2, one month before elections.

There are many restrictions barring the bidding cities from communicating with or influencing directly the 115 voting members. Cities cannot invite any IOC members to visit them and they cannot send them anything that can be construed as a gift. However, bidding cities invest large sums in their PR and media programs in an attempt to indirectly influence the IOC members by garnering domestic support, support from sports media and general international media. Jon Tibbs, a consultant on the Tokyo bid, was recently quoted as saying “Ultimately, you are communicating with just 115 people and each one has influencers and pressure groups but you are still speaking to no more than about 1,500 people, perhaps 5,000 in the broadest sense. It is not just about getting ads out there but it is about a targeted and very carefully planned campaign.”

The final voting was held on October 2, 2009, in Copenhagen with Chicago and Rio de Janeiro perceived as favorites to land the games. Chicago and Tokyo were eliminated after the first and second rounds of voting, respectively, while Rio de Janeiro took a significant lead over Madrid heading into the final round. The lead held and Rio de Janeiro was announced as host, becoming the first city in South America to host an Olympic games.

121st Session International Olympic Committee October 2, 2009, in Bella Center, Copenhagen, Denmark.
City	NOC	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
Rio de Janeiro	BRA	26	46	66
Madrid	ESP	28	29	32
Tokyo	JPN	22	20	—
Chicago	USA	18	—	—

Venues and infrastructure

Barra da Tijuca will host most of the venues of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2016. The rest will be located in three other zones: Copacabana Beach, Maracanã and Deodoro; Barra da Tijuca will also house the Olympic Village.

Otherwise, the Rio's historical downtown is envolved in a large-scale urban waterfront revitalization project called Porto Maravilha. It covers a five million square meters area centrally located. The project aims to redevelop the port area increasing the city center attractiveness as a whole and enhances Rio’s competitiveness position in the global economy. The urban renovation involves: 700 km of public networks for water supply, sanitation, drainage, electricity, gas and telecom; 4 km of tunnels; 70 km of roads; 650 km² of sidewalks; 17 km of bike path; 15.000 trees; 3 plants for sanitation treatment

Besides the Maracanã Stadium and Engenhão, the football matches will also take place in Salvador (Arena Fonte Nova), São Paulo (Arena de São Paulo), Belo Horizonte (Estádio Mineirão) and Brasília (Estádio Nacional de Brasília). All these stadiums will also be used in the FIFA World Cup 2014 except by the Morumbi Stadium which will be replaced by Arena de São Paulo Stadium.

Preparations

Renovations of the Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí were completed in February 2012. In March 2012 Rio 2016 selected the winning design for its golf course. The Brazilian government will be investing $17 billion in funding for mass transit infrastructure that will help in the preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics.

The Rio 2016 Coordination Commission most recently visited the city in June 2012.

On June 26th, 2011 it was reported on AroundTheRings.com that Roderlei Generali, the COO of the Rio De Janeiro Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, resigned just one year after taking the job at ROOC. This comes just five months after CCO Flavio Pestana quit for personal reasons.

Sports

The 2016 Summer Olympic program is scheduled to feature 28 sports and a total of 38 disciplines. There were two open spots for sports and initially seven sports began the bidding for inclusion in the 2016 program. Baseball and softball, which were dropped from the program in 2005, karate, squash, golf, wake boarding, roller sports, and rugby union all applied to be included. Leaders of the seven sports held presentations in front of the IOC executive board in June 2009.

In August, the executive board initially gave its approval to rugby sevens—a seven-man version of rugby union—by a majority vote, thus removing baseball, roller sports, and squash from contention. Among the remaining three—golf, karate, and softball—the board approved golf as a result of consultation. A decision regarding the remaining two sports was made on October 9, 2009, the final day of the 121st IOC Session at which Rio de Janeiro was named as host. A new system was in place at this Session; a sport now needs only a simple majority from the full IOC for approval rather than the two-thirds majority previously required.

On October 9, 2009 the IOC voted to include rugby sevens and golf on the program for the Games in Rio. The other 26 sports were also confirmed with a large majority of the votes. International Golf Federation executive director Antony Scanlon told Olympic news outlet Around the Rings that the top players, including Tiger Woods and Annika Sörenstam, would show their continued support of golf's Olympic involvement by participating in the events.

In August 2011, President of the 2016 Olympic Committee, Carlos Nuzman, backed Sepp Blatter's request to include beach soccer in the 2016 games.

In May 2012, the International Sailing Federation announced that windsurfing would be removed from the 2016 Olympic sailing programme and replaced by kitesurfing.

In the Paralympics, triathlon will be held as a para-sport for the first time.

Logo

The Rio 2016 symbol resembles three figures – yellow, green and blue – embraced at the arms and in a triple hug representing the Sugarloaf Mountain. The logo was designed based on four pillars: contagious energy, harmonious diversity, exuberant nature and Olympic spirit. The logo was designed by Rio agency Tatil in a race involving 139 agencies. According to IOC President Jacques Rogge, the logo really reflects the vision of Rio de Janeiro and Brazil for these Games. The logo has been noted as evoking Henri Matisse's painting Dance, in addition to its use of colours found in Brazilian flag. The emblem was unveiled at 10 pm on December 31, 2010, during the Réveillon party in the Copacabana Beach.

Broadcasting

• Austria – ORF
• Azerbaijan – İTV
• Belgium – VRT
• Brazil – Rede Globo and Rede Bandeirantes (exclusive all rights holders), Rede Record (only free-to-air television)
• Canada – CBC
• China – CCTV
• Estonia – ERR, MTG
• Europe – Sportfive; rights in each country to be resold to local broadcasters, except France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom
• Finland – Yle
• France – France Télévisions
• Germany – ARD, ZDF
• Italy – Sky Italia
• Latvia – LTV, MTG
• Lithuania – LNK, Lietuvos rytas TV, MTG
• Japan – NHK
• Netherlands – NOS
• Norway – TV 2
• North Korea – SBS
• Slovenia – RTV Slovenija
• South Korea – SBS
• Spain – RTVE
• Sweden – MTG
• Switzerland – SRG SSR
• Turkey – FOX
• United Kingdom – BBC
• United States – NBC

Anti-fraud plan

On June 11, 2010, the federal government launched a program to protect the tenders for work in preparation for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games against the possibility of fraud. The plan, known as Jogando Limpo (Fair Playing or Playing It Clean), includes a series of guidelines and nuggets of advice so that the government institutions, and also the tax authorities and common citizens themselves, may identify and denounce attempts at fraud against the tenders. The program, which was launched by the Ministries for Justice and for Sport, also plans the establishment of a group dedicating to monitoring tenders, to protect them against the threat of fraud and also to avoid delays in construction work.

This initiative, also boosted by the General Financial Controller of the Union (Controladoria Geral da União), also plans a campaign to make the people aware of the need to pay attention to possible fraud and to always denounce the cases. The program emphasizes measures against cartels and possible agreements between competing companies to set prices above market levels, in an attempt to raise the value of the contracts with the state. "Nothing can be worse than someone taking advantage of these two great opportunities to commit crimes. This is a world phenomenon," said the Minister for Justice, Luiz Paulo Barreto, during the ceremony to launch the program.

"The businesspeople could be entering with an agreement on prices, in order to compete in these tenders. This is something that needs to be tackled. We need to promote fair play also in our tenders," Barreto added. "Fair play is something we would expect from a country intending to host events of this size," he added. Barreto also said that, between 2007 and 2010, there were a total of 265 search and seizure warrants issued in Brazil to tackle the crime of cartel formation. In the same period over 100 people were preventively arrested for the same crime, and currently an additional 251 people are being investigated.

Security

Since the award of the 2016 Olympics to Rio de Janeiro, the city's crime problems have received more attention. A police helicopter was shot down over a favela during one of the city's many drug wars, and the pilot was killed in the incident. Rio's mayor has admitted that there are "big issues" facing the city in securing the games from violence, however, he also states that such concerns and issues were presented to the IOC throughout the bidding process. The governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro also highlighted the fact that London faced security problems with a terrorist attack occurring on the day following the IOC session that chose the city to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

The IOC, however, has expressed optimism with allowing the city and the nation of Brazil to address these concerns. Seven years is enough time for Rio de Janeiro to clean up its crime problem the IOC says. IOC spokesman Mark Adams told The Associated Press "we have confidence in their capacity to deliver a safe Games in seven years." "Security is of course a very important aspect of any Olympic Games no matter where it is in the world. This is of course entirely under the national, regional and city authorities." Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, former president of Brazil, has noted that the city has hosted other high-profile events without major incident, for example the 2007 Pan American Games.

Rio de Janeiro is planning to pacify local neighbourhoods or favelas. Community-based Police Pacification Units (UPPs) will be used to combine trust-building in individual communities, through the use of street patrols and civic work. Moreover, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, homicides have fallen to the lowest level since 1991, indicating the success of Brazil's "pacification" project implemented for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics. The Regional Institute of Public Safety reported that the homicide rate of Rio de Janeiro for the first five months of 2012 was at its lowest in the past 21 years, with 10.9 homicides for every 100,000 habitants. Nonetheless, despite the decline in homicides and human rights abuses, the Human Rights Watch urged Brazil to investigate extrajudicial killings.

External links

• Rio de Janeiro 2016 from the International Olympic Committee
• Rio de Janeiro 2016 Official Homepage
• Rio de Janeiro 2016 Official Games Homepage
• Sports at Rio Olympic games 2016 and Rio Paralympic games 2016
• Track and Field

Preceded by Sochi 2014	Olympics 2016	Succeeded by Pyeongchang 2018
Preceded by London 2012	Summer Olympics 2016	Succeeded by not yet awarded

See Also

• Logos - A collection of logos featuring this event.
• Mascots - The official mascots of this Olympics'.
• Torch - Information about this Olympics' torch.