Thomas Bach dedicates Rio 2016 to the young of Brazil: "We want to help make a better future"
President of International Olympic Committee talks to students at Rio 2016 headquarters
After a question and answer session, Thomas Bach posed for pictures with students and young employees of the organising committee (Photo: Rio 2016/Gabriel Nascimento)
On a visit to Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday (13 June), Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said the 2016 Olympic Games would help create a better future for a country that is in the midst of economic and political turmoil.
"We want the Olympic Games to have an impact for years if not generations on Brazilian society and provide better opportunities for the young than their predecessors had," Bach told an audience of university students at the headquarters of the Rio 2016 organising committee. "That's the difference we want to make, not just two weeks of a great sporting festival."
Following the award of the Olympic Games in 2009, there have been major investments in transportation and hotels in Rio de Janeiro as well as in sporting infrastructure. Many Olympic venues, such as those in the Deodoro zone in western Rio, will be open to the public to use after the Games. The Future Arena will be dismantled and converted into four state schools, while the Olympic Aquatics Stadium will be taken down and converted into two smaller swimming venues.
Meanwhile, the organising committee's educational programme has given hundreds of thousands of children across Rio de Janeiro a first taste of Olympic and Paralympic sporting disciplines.
"When the closing ceremony is over on 22 August, Rio de Janeiro will have become a better city," Bach said.
The Games will help improve the investment climate, attract more people to Brazil and enhance the country's perception in the eyes of the world, he said. As such, the event will play a part in helping the Brazilian economy emerge from its current difficulties.
Bach said the Games would serve to bring the Brazilian people together during a divisive political and economic crisis. "Maybe what Brazil needs now is something which can unify the country," Bach said. "I am very encouraged by the Torch Relay and by the public reaction to the Olympic Games."
The German said he was "fully confident" that Rio 2016 would be a great edition of the Games, adding: "They will send a message of unity, solidarity and hope to Brazilians, and also from Brazil to the world."
"This picture is what the Olympic Games are all about," Bach said. "The young generation sharing the ideals of the Olympic Games and the joy of life" (Photo: Rio 2016/Marcos de Paula)