With just days to go until Rio de Janeiro celebrates one year to the Paralympic Games, the city’s residents are getting ever more familiar with the 65 sports that will be contested during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Rio 2016 education programme, known as Transforma, held its fifth sports festival on Saturday (29 August) in the city’s biggest favela community, Rocinha. More than 1,000 people of all ages took part, having a go at new sports and getting into the Games spirit.

The event was attended by Kentaro Kato, Japan's consul in Brazil, who took his family. “It’s valuable for the Tokyo organising committee (of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games) to see what is going on in the Rio 2016 education programme,” he said. “Transforma is promoting little-known sports, and we want to do that in Japan, too.”

The sports practised were: golf, rugby, hockey, badminton, tennis, boxing, goalball, fencing, five-a-side-side football for the visually impaired, athletics, volleyball, boccia, judo, taekwondo, wrestling and archery.

Besides getting familiar with the 16 new sports, participants were also able to meet the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games mascots, Vinicius and Tom. There was also a presentation of combat sports at Instituto Reação, an NGO set up by Olympic judo medallist Flavio Canto in a number of Rio’s favelas, to teach judo to youngsters.

“Some children had never left the community where they live. The festival is a unique experience for them to get a feel for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, " said Alex Cardoso, sports projects coordinator for Rio’s municipal government.

The festival’s next edition will be hosted across Guanabara Bay in Niterói, at the Caio Martins Stadium, on 19 September, from 9am to 1pm. Admission is free.­

   Water polo was one of the 16 sports tried out by festival goers (Photo: Rio 2016/Alexandre Loureiro)