With three days to go to the opening of the Pan American Games Guadalajara 2011, in Mexico, the president of the Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Rio 2016™, Carlos Arthur Nuzman, today (Tuesday, October 11) stressed the importance of the second largest multisport event in the planet to Rio de Janeiro.

While presenting the progress report on preparations for the Rio 2016™ Games to the Pan American Sport Organization (PASO) General Assembly in Guadalajara, Nuzman showed how the 2007 Pan American Games proved to the world that Rio de Janeiro was prepared to organise large scale sporting events, and qualified the city to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Because of the 2007 Pan American Games, Rio was the candidate city to the 2016 Summer Olympics that required the smaller amount of new sporting venues, being thus able to concentrate on the city’s long-needed infrastructure improvements. Thanks to the use of all the facilities built for the 2007 Pan American Games, 47% of the Rio 2016™ venues already exist (25% will be temporary and only 28% will have to be built).

Nuzman listed these venues, describing how they have been used since 2007:

• João Havelange Olympic Stadium: it will host Athletics competitions in 2016 and it is currently home of three from the four big football clubs in Rio in addition to mega music concerts;

• Maria Lenk Aquatic Park: a synchronised swimming, swimming and diving training facility, as well as the venue of a Taekwondo Training Centre and future home of the Brazilian Olympic Laboratory;

• Velodrome – it has already hosted cycling, skating, wrestling, judo and weightlifting competitions, and it is also a cycling and skating training venue;

• Deodoro Sports Complex: it boasts a world-class shooting centre, an Olympic-level equestrian centre and an equine laboratory, besides having already hosted approximately 150 events;

• Olympic Arena: run by one of the world’s leading event companies under the same standards as the major international multi-purpose arenas.

“The main legacy left by the Pan American Games Rio 2007 to the city, Brazil and South America was the right to host the Olympic Games for the first time,” Nuzman said. “Each Pan American Games host has its own objective. Rio’s biggest goal was to host the Olympic Games and we are happy to have been able to achieve it. I hope Guadalajara also reaches its targets and I am sure it will deliver magnificent Games,” he added.