Rio 2016 to unveil eight new venues during 25 test events over next five months
While organisers test venues and operations, athletes will be able to acclimatise to host city and, in some cases, qualify for the Games
Of the 25 test events to be staged this year, nine will offer ways qualify for the Games (Getty Images)
It may be more than six months until the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, but there will be plenty of Games-related sporting action in the city before then. Starting with basketball on 15 January, Rio de Janeiro will host 25 test events (20 Olympic, five Paralympic) in five months, following on from the 20 held last year and in 2014.
The events allow Games organisers to test the venues and fine tune operations, while providing athletes with the chance to experience the host city and competition sites, and in some cases, qualify for the Games themselves.
“We learned a lot in 2015 and we are going to make even more progress in 2016,” said Rodrigo Garcia, Rio 2016’s director of sports. “The big advantage of having an extensive calendar is that it enables us to implement alterations identified during the test events themselves. The objective is to have everything 100 per cent ready for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Click here to see the full text event calendar
New venues
After staging its first test event in December, when the Olympic Tennis Centre was inaugurated, Barra Olympic Park will host 17 of the remaining competitions. Carioca Arena 1 – one of seven new venues being constructed in Barra Olympic Park – will be the busiest, hosting the first three test events of the year and six in total, more than any other venue. After basketball it will stage powerlifting and wrestling, also in January, and then host taekwondo and wheelchair rugby in February and judo in March.
Barra Olympic Park, with the Future Arena in the foreground followed in line by Carioca Arenas 1, 2 and 3, then the Rio Olympic Velodrome, with Rio Olympic Arena on the right and the Olympic Tennis Centre on the left (Photo: Brasil2016/André Motta)
In total, eight new venues will open for business during this year’s test events: Carioca Arenas 1 and 3, Rio Olympic Velodrome, the Olympic Golf Course, Olympic Aquatics Stadium and the Future Arena (all in Barra), as well as Deodoro Stadium and Youth Arena in Deodoro Olympic Park, the second largest venue cluster
See where each sport will take place with our venues map
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Places up for grabs
Three of the 25 test events will offer athletes the chance to earn places at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games: diving (Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre, 19-24 February), synchronised swimming (Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre, 2-6 March ) and gymnastics (Rio Olympic Arena, 16-24 April), which will qualify athletes for three disciplines – artistic, rhythmic and trampoline.
Other test events, while not offering direct qualification, will help finalise which athletes compete at Rio 2016 by awarding ranking points (modern pentathlon) or giving competitors the chance to record qualification standards (powerlifting, race walk, Olympic and Paralympic swimming, and track and field athletics).
