The Rio 2016™ Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games has announced the results of the Pre-Games Training Venues Registering and Selection process this Tuesday, 24 January 2012. A total of 172 sports venues in 73 cities and 18 states in the five regions of the Brazil were considered.

The Rio 2016™ Pre-Games Training Venues will be presented to all National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) through an online guide to be launched during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

For the full list of venues, please visit the Rio 2016™ website at www.rio2016.com/treinamentoprejogos/documentos.

The careful Pre-Games Training Venues Registering and Selection Process, which lasted 12-months, had phases and requirements that were extensively publicised by Rio 2016™. It aimed to identify venues across Brazil which were able to meet the technical requirements and recommendations of the International Sports Federations, so that the National Olympic and Paralympic Committees could bring their athletes to Brazil before the Games. The Pre-Games period is important because the athletes can improve training and adjustment to the local conditions.

These criteria were also taken into consideration: venue accessibility, travel time to domestic flight airports, as well as hotel chains and hospitals available in the surroundings.

The identification of these venues is a requirement of the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee to the host-country of the Games. After the venues are identified, each venue must negotiate directly with the relevant NOCs and NPCs the terms of use of its equipment by the foreign delegations.

“We are pleased that this project is a critical part of the dissemination of the benefits and of the experience provided by the Olympic Games to the whole country. Receiving Olympic or Paralympic Delegations is a great opportunity to further the social and economic life of cities. These cities could start to act as sport development centers in their states or regions and develop sport segments. It is also an opportunity for national and international promotion and advertisement of the sport and touristic potential of the involved cities.”, said the president of Rio 2016™, Carlos Arthur Nuzman.
 

Being an online tool, the Rio 2016™ Pre-Games Training Venues Guide may be updated until 2016, which will foster increased benefits of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to the new venues which were not able to meet the requirements of all of the phases of the registering and selection process.

“This project is crucial to the sports legacy of the Rio 2016™ Olympic and Paralympic Games, as it will boost the renewal of the national, public and private national network of sporting venues with the construction or refurbishment of facilities. There is not a limit to the number of venues that may be indicated and we wish include all which meet the requirements of the International Federations”, explained the Rio 2016™ sport director, Agberto Guimarães.

All city, state and federal sport organisations, public and private teaching institutions, military institutions, private sport clubs and enterprises engaged in sport-related businesses and owners of other facilities were encouraged to participate in the process. In the end, a total of 98 public venues (64 local, 19 state and 15 federal ones) and 74 private venues were selected.