Rio prepares for party of a lifetime as city enters final countdown to Olympic Games
As Olympic venues and transport links receive finishing touches, Mayor reveals plans for extra holidays and new entertainment zones
Getty Images/Mario Tama
With 100 days to go until the 2016 Olympic Games, Rio de Janeiro is preparing radical measures as it gets ready to host the greatest party on earth.
The host city expects to welcome some 800,000 tourists during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as 15,000 athletes. To ensure a memorable, hassle-free experience for all those guests, Rio is changing the dates of school holidays, building entire new metro, bus and tram lines and even giving residents extra days off during the Games to reduce traffic on the roads.
Speaking to journalists in Rio on Wednesday (27 April), 100 days before the opening ceremony, Mayor Eduardo Paes said: "I am enormously proud that we have arrived at the 100-day mark with nearly everything ready. Many people were sceptical but we have demonstrated our abilities. We have delivered on time and on budget."
"I am very optimistic. We have our heads held high and we will deliver a great Olympic Games," Paes said.
Nearly all the stadiums and sports centres where athletes will compete are now ready for action. In Barra Olympic Park, the city’s largest Olympic area, venues are 98 per cent complete in total. Seating is currently being installed in the Olympic Tennis Centre, which is 92 per cent ready. Paes said that work on the velodrome, 85 per cent complete, is progressing well and is in advance of the new schedule.
The Olympic and Paralympic Village, where the athletes will stay, is 98 per cent ready and the apartments are now being fitted out with furniture.
Urban mobility
Rio has made major investments in public transport infrastructure that will begin to bear fruit in the run-up to the Games, reducing traffic on the roads and shortening travel times around the city and to and from Olympic venues.
On 22 May, a light rail network will begin operating in the centre of the city, linking the domestic airport to the bus station. This will be the first time that trams have run in the city since the 1960s. Meanwhile, tunnelling has been completed for the new metro Line 4, which will reduce the journey time to Barra Olympic Park. On the roads, there will be exclusive bus lanes during the Games for athletes and officials and extra bus lines will be laid on at night.
Rio has built a brand new light rail system for the Games (Photo: Getty Images/Mario Tama)
To cut city traffic during the period of the Games, school holidays this year will take place in August rather than the traditional month of July and will also last longer than usual. Meanwhile, city authorities and industry associations have said they will be encouraging employees to work from home; the target is for each company to reduce commuting traffic by 30 per cent during the Games.
The day of the opening ceremony (5 August) and the day of the triathlon (18 August) will be public holidays. Paes said on Wednesday that 22 August, the day after the closing ceremony, would also be a day off. The Mayor expects some 100,000 people to leave the city from the international airport that day.
Waterfront party
After the opening ceremony on 5 August, the Olympic cauldron will be located in the regenerated port area of the city, Paes said.
In the modern Olympic Games, the torch is used to light a cauldron that burns for the duration of the Games. That cauldron normally resides inside the main Olympic Stadium until it is extinguished in the closing ceremony. In Rio the Olympic flame will blaze by the revitalised waterfront, run down and almost deserted just 10 years ago but now one of the city’s liveliest and must bustling areas by day and night.
During the Games, residents and tourists will be able to follow the sporting events on big screens here, enjoy music from Brazilian and international bands, buy snacks and meals from a variety of food trucks, rise 150 metres into the air in a balloon and even go bungee jumping.
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Paes said that the decision to locate the Olympic cauldron in the area would help bring the Olympic spirit to the people of Rio and help democratise the Games. There will also be another entertainment area for fans in Madureira, in the city's poorer northern region.
