Two major International Olympic Committee (IOC) events have brought executives from the organisation to Rio de Janeiro this week. The 8th Meeting of the IOC Coordination Commission for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, known as CoCom, is taking place between Monday and Wednesday (February 23-25) and the IOC Executive Board will then meet on Thursday, Friday and Saturday (February 26-28).

Outside of these meetings in Copacabana, there will be a host of parallel activities across the city, as the IOC and local Rio 2016 Games organisers seek to promote the social legacy of staging the world’s biggest sporting event in South America for the first time. These activities began on Sunday, when CoCom members and athletics legends Sergey Bubka and Nawal El Moutawakel gave aspiring young athletes a special training session. Similar sporting clinics in fencing and rowing will be staged during the week.

IOC President Thomas Bach will also be involved, meeting with university students to discuss the Games and its legacy, then leading the fencing clinic – something the German, a former Olympic and world champion in the sport, will be well equipped to do. And on Tuesday (24 February) afternoon, Bach will meet Brazilian Presidente Dilma Rousseff in Brasília.

The rowing clinic will take at the Olympic venue of Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas with Anita DeFrantz, who won a bronze medal in the sport for the USA at the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games.

The IOC Coordination Commission monitors preparations for the Olympic Games and provides advice and support for organisers. Throughout the three days, CoCom members will visit the venue sites and be updated on preparations for the Games by the Rio 2016 Organising Committee and its government partners.