Construction of the venues that will host the world’s finest athletes during the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games is in the home straight, Rio’s city government has announced. At Barra Olympic Park, which will be the heart of the Games, work is 82 per cent completed. Six of the seven new venues being built there (there are also two existing venues) will be completed by the end of 2015, as will the Olympic Golf Course, which is being constructed in the same neighbourhood of Barra da Tijuca.

City Hall also announced that work on the three venues (BMX, mountain bike and canoe slalom) that will comprise the X-Park, within in the Deodoro Olympic Park, is nearly 80 per cent complete.

Rio mayor Eduardo Paes presented the update in a press conference to mark the one-year-to-go milestone at Barra Olympic Park on Wednesday (5 August). See below for venue-by-venue details.

Barra Olympic Park

The main venue cluster will host 16 of the 42 Olympic sports and nine of the 23 Paralympic disciplines. Its last competition venue – the Olympic Aquatics Stadium – will be completed in the first quarter of 2016, while the other six new constructions, listed below, will be completed before the end of 2015. The Rio Olympic Arena and Mara Lenk Aquatics Centre, which were built for the 2007 Pan-American Games, complete the line-up in Barra Olympic Park.

Carioca Arena 1 - 85% complete

Scheduled to be completed in the third quarter of 2015, Carioca Arena Carioca 1 will stage basketball during the Olympic Games and wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby during the Paralympic Games. After the Games it will form part of the Olympic Training Centre, the main sporting legacy.

Carioca Arena 2 - 91% complete

The stage for judo and wrestling during the Olympic Games, then boccia in the Paralympic Games, Carioca Arena 2 will be completed in the third quarter of 2015 and will also form part of the Olympic Training Centre.

Carioca Arena 3 - 93% complete

Olympic fencing and taekwondo, and Paralympic judo, will be held at Carioca Arena 3, which will be completed in the third quarter of 2015. After the Games it will be converted into an Olympic Experimental School, which combines academic teaching with top-level sports training, with space for 850 full-time students.

Carioca Arenas 1, 2 and 3 (R-L) are having their finishing touches applied (Photo: EOM)

Olympic Tennis Centre - 68% complete

The venue for the Olympic tennis tournament, wheelchair tennis and 5-a-side football for the visually impaired will be completed in the third quarter of 2015. It will comprise a centre court, two secondary courts plus another seven outer courts, and six courts for warming up and training. Scheduled to be completed in the third quarter of 2015, it will allow Rio to host top-level tennis tournaments for years to come.

The Olympic Tennis Centre (Photo: EOM)

Rio Olympic Velodrome - 61% complete

Scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2015, the velodrome will host the Olympic and Paralympic track cyclists – the fastest athletes at the Games. After the Games it will allow Rio to continue hosting top-level track cycling events and serve as a high-performance training centre, while also hosting groups from social projects.

Rio Olympic Velodrome (EOM)

Future Arena - 74% complete

The 12,000-seat venue for handball during the Olympic Games and goalball during the Paralympic Games is scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2015. After the Games it will be dismounted and its parts used to construct four public schools, each with a capacity of 500 students.

The Future Arena, with the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in the background (Phot: EOM)

Olympic Aquatics Stadium - 81% complete

The arena that will host Olympic and Paralympic swimming, plus water polo, will be completed in the first quarter of 2016. After the Games it will be dismounted and its parts used to construct two aquatics centres, both of which will have 50m Olympic swimming pools and be used for training and hosting international events.

The Olympic Aquatics Stadium (Photo: EOM)

Olympic Golf Course - 98% complete

Set to be delivered in time for November’s test event, this venue – close to but not in Barra Olympic Park – will host golf’s return to the Olympic Games after an 112-year absence. After the Games, it will be a public course.

The Olympic Golf Course will have space for 15,000 fans druing the Games (Photo: EOM)

Deodoro Olympic Park

The second-largest Rio 2016 venue cluster, Deodoro will host 11 Olympic sports and four Paralympic disciplines. With many of its venues already constructed for the 2007 Pan-American Games, the city government is building the X-Park, which will feature three ‘radical’ sports – BMX, mountain bike and slalom canoe – and is nearly 80 per cent complete.

Whitewater Stadium - 79% complete

Scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2016, the canoe slalom venue will become a large recreational lake for public use after the Games.

Work continues on the Whitewater stadium (Photo: EOM)

Olympic BMX Centre - 79% complete

Set to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2015, the BMX facilities will be maintained after the Games for high-performance and public use. 

The BMX track takes shape (Phot: EOM)

Mountain Bike Centre - 79% complete

Although the course will be ready for the test event in October, the complete supporting instrastructure is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2016.

Work continues on the mountain bike course (Photo: EOM)

Youth Arena - 62% complete

The stage for the fencing section of modern pentathlon and the first phase of women’s basketball, plus wheelchair fencing, is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2016.

The Youth Arena (Photo: EOM)