Great names of Brazilian sport are involved in planning the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Every two months, the Sports Advisory Committee – that includes names such as Carlos Alberto Parreira, Brazil National Football Team Technical Coordinator, and Olympic medallist Maurren Maggi – meets in order to help the Rio 2016 Committee organise the event.

“The Sports Advisory Committee has a key role in organising the Rio 2016 Games: translating and transmitting the athletes’ real needs”, explains Ricardo Prado, President of the Rio 2016 Sports Advisory Committee.

Members of the Advisory Committee help the Organising Committee with decisions relating to the sports venues and the Olympic and Paralympic Village, besides cooperating in the promotion of the Games ideals all over Brazil and the world. On Thursday, Parreira attended his first meeting as part of the Advisory Committee.

“It’s good to see that planning is going very well. I’m willing to cooperate in my area, which is among the organisation’s most advanced as Olympic Games Football events will take place in World Cup stadiums and the same training centres will be used”, Parreira said.

The members of the Advisory Committee worry about one single thing: celebrating an unforgettable competition – for both athletes and the public – that will be remembered by all.

“Only from the other side one is able to notice how difficult it is to organise an event of this size. We’re united by a single thought: having the best possible competition, the best for both athletes and the general public, besides presenting a good image of our country”, said Sprinter Ádria dos Santos, winner of four gold medals in Paralympic Games.

Ricardinho, two-time Paralympic champion in Football 5-a-side, who was invited to the meeting, celebrates the opportunity of participating in the event’s organisation.

 “This opportunity of participating in the organisation of the Olympic Games in my home country from the beginning is exceptional. Outsiders are not aware of the event’s magnitude, of the number of people who work with sport. As an athlete, one always arrives at a sporting event with everything ready and, sometimes, one criticises the organisation, simply for not realising the complexity of it all”, Ricardinho comments.

The Advisory Committee members who attended the meeting on Thursday also included: former Olympic athlete Agberto Guimarães, Rio 2016 Executive Director of Sport; and former Volleyball players Marcus Vinícius Freire and Bernard Rajzman, silver medallists in the Los Angeles 1984 Games who today are part of the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB in Portuguese), as Executive Director of Sport and Director of Sport respectively.4, e que hoje estão no Comitê Olímpico Brasileiro (COB), como diretor executivo de Esportes e diretor de Esportes, respectivamente.