With the presence of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President, Jacques Rogge, City of Rio de Janeiro Mayor, Eduardo Paes, and the Institute of Architects of Brazil (IAB, in Portuguese) in Rio President, Sérgio Magalhães, in the morning of this Wednesday 29th, they signed the technical cooperation term for the realization of an international general architecture and urbanization tender for the Olympic Park of Barra, which will concentrate 19 Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games facilities. 

The ceremony was held at the Arena da Barra, located where the Olympic Park will be built, in the Western Zone of the city, and also counted with the presence of State Governor, Sérgio Cabral; High Performance Sports Secretary of the Ministry of Sports, Ricardo Leyser; IOC Coordination Commission President for the Rio 2016 Games President, Nawal El Moutawakel; IOC Olympic Games Director, Gilbert Felli; Rio 2016 Organizing Committee President, Carlos Arthur Nuzman; and the Rio 2016 Games CEO, Leonardo Gryner.



“The Olympic Games are an opportunity for a city, and even a continent, to think of its future”, Rogge said. “It is possible to do in seven years what would probably be done in twenty-five”, reinforced him, also stating that the Games have the capacity to speed up the development of a city in a sustainable way. Rogge said that the IOC defends the construction of self-sufficient or temporary facilities, which could be disassembled after the Games. 

He praised the partnership initiatives between governments and other entities and underlined that the legacy left by the Games will be “partly human and partly brickwork”.

During the ceremony, Gryner presented the park project, which will be built in an area of 1.6 million square meters. The Olympic Park, which will occupy the area of the Jacarepaguá Racing Circuit (and will include the Arena da Barra and the Aquatic Park Maria Lenk, built for the Rio 2007 Pan-American Games), will concentrate most of the sports competitions of the Rio 2016 Games, such as judo, volleyball, basketball, cycling, hockey, tennis, taekwondo, swimming, wrestling and handball. 

The IBC (games transmission center) and the MPC (press center) will also be located at the Olympic Park. 

According to the CEO, at the park 112 gold medals will be handed to the athletes, which will represent 40% of the total of the Rio 2016 Games. The planning presented expects the construction of 10 permanent facilities and other 9 temporary ones. That part of the land should be utilized for private enterprises that will be defined by the City Hall Director Planning. 

Sérgio Magalhães stated that the selection of projects for the Olympic Park will be developed in two stages, beginning January 15th, 2011. The first one will evaluate the experience of all teams of architects and will select eight groups of professionals from all over the world. In the second stage the eight final projects will be evaluated. 

The winning group will be known in June of the same year and will coordinate the executive project and the implementation of the facilities of the park. For the President of IAB of Rio de Janeiro, the quality of the groups involved will be paramount for the Games and the future of the city. “I am sure that it is a very important contribution for the success of the Olympic Games and the quality of the legacy the city of Rio de Janeiro and the state will have with the 2016 Olympic Games”, he said.