Rio De Janeiro to Host the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics

The Cidade Maravilhosa will be My General, the first South American city to play host to the Summer Olympics 2016. All the competitions except for football will be held in Rio. Barra, Copacabana, Deodoro, and Maracana are the four Olympic zones where the competitors will take place; in contrast, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Salvador, and Sao Paulo are the cities where the football matches will be held. The Summer Olympics and the Paralympics will tentatively range between August 5, 21, and September 7 to 18, respectively.

When Rio was nominated as the Brazilian host candidate for the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, the Brazilian Olympic Committee (BOC) and the Federal Government highly supported its candidacy. The BOC felt Rio was the right place to host the Summer Olympics because it has first-rate facilities for the different Olympic competitions and accommodations for the thousands of athletes and tourists staying in Rio for the event. Carlos Arthur Nuzman and the former Rio de Janeiro mayor, Cesar Maia, fully supported and approved Rio’s candidature.

Rio de Janeiro has hosted several important international competitions, making it equipped to play host to the Summer Olympics. 2007, Rio hosted the XV Pan American Games and the III Parapan American Games. The IPC even declared that the III Parapan American Games was the best in history. Brazil will also be the host country of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The decision of the BOC to choose Rio over the other contenders was formally announced on September 1, 2006, during the Annual Assembly. It is Rio’s first successful attempt at becoming the host city for an Olympic event after failing to cut the 1936, 1940, 2004, and 2012 Olympics.

On May 16, 2007, the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics bidding process commenced. The IOC received seven candidates, Baku, Chicago, Doha, Madrid, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo. The 2016 Applicant Cities Seminar was held in Lausanne, Switzerland, on October 18, 2007, and the bid committees from the different candidate cities attended. Each candidate must submit an Applicant File, which should give descriptions, strategies, and project overviews to answer the IOC’s 2016 Candidature Acceptance Procedure and Questionnaire. The IOC Working Group and the IOC Executive Board are in charge of deliberating the Application Files of the seven candidates.

On June 4, 2008, the IOC officially announced the final four in Athens. The shortlisted cities were Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. The cities were judged according to eleven criteria: government support, legal issues and public opinion, general infrastructure, sports venues, Olympic village, environment conditions and impact, accommodation, transport concept, safety and security, experience from past sports events, finance, and overall project and legacy. The weighted averages of the cities were: Tokyo – 8.3, Madrid – 8.1, Chicago – 7.0, Doha – 6.9, Rio de Janeiro – 6.4, Prague – 5.3, and Baku – 4.3. Despite Doha having a higher average than Rio, the IOC still chose Rio to be part of the shortlist. This decision raised political criticism, but Doha’s bid was rejected due to its proposal of staging the Summer Olympics in October to avoid extreme temperatures instead of the usual mid-summer period.

During the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, the four shortlisted candidates participated in the Olympic Games Observer Program. The candidates were also required to submit a Candidature File containing detailed answers to 300 technical questions of the IOC. From April 2 to May 9, the IOC Evaluation Commission inspected the four candidate cities on-site. On October 2, 2009, the decision was released in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Major plans for the Summer Olympics are being implemented in Rio. Olympic lanes will be built connecting the four proposed Olympic zones and the Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport. Olympic villages with accommodations and training facilities will be dedicated to the athletes. Media villages and hotel rooms will be allocated to the media covering the event. Rio’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system is the primary mode of transportation to the different locations within the city. The Federal Government has strategies to ensure safety and security.

Aside from creating facilities for the traditional Olympic Games, Rio’s bid committee also added its proposal for accommodating some new sports that may be added to the Olympic Program. The bid committee proved capable of staging baseball, golf, karate, roller sports, rugby, softball, and squash.

Ana Soter designed the logo of Rio’s candidature, accompanied by the slogan, “Live your passion”. It highly reflects the Brazilian’s passionate involvement in accomplishing whatever they want or need to do. AtAt midnight, the logo and slogan were projected on the 36-meter Ferris wheel right after the ten-second countdown to the beginning of the New Year of 2009. The summer of 2016 will be one of the most memorable summers of the decade, and Rio de Janeiro is the place to be from August to September of 2016 under the Olympic Games.