In 2009, Rio de Janeiro was chosen to host the first edition of the Olympic Games in South America. After seven years of hard work, what looked a distant dream is now a tangible reality: in just 200 days, the Maracanã Stadium will stage the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, signalling the start of the greatest show on earth.

Preparations are in the home straight, but there is still plenty to do between now and 5 August. Rio2016.com has broken down the main deliveries into four blocks of 50 days. 

200 days to go (as of 18 January):

• The selection of 12,000 volunteers to join the casts of the opening and closing ceremonies is underway. On 25 February, the second wave of auditions will begin, lasting until 20 March. Want to be part of the show? Hurry, there’s still time to sign up.
• Rio 2016 will host and feed 10,500 of the world’s finest athletes in the Olympic Village. The restaurant, which has a floor-space of 25,000m² and will serve 60,000 meals per day, will be furnished during this period.
• The logistics team will be working around the clock: they must finalise the planning for bringing 800 boats and 315 horses to Rio for the sailing and equestrian events, as well as providing equipment for 37 competition venues, the International Broadcast Centre, Main Press Centre and athletes’ village and other accommodation clusters (for officials, media and workforce).
• In February, the printing of Olympic Games tickets will begin. Find out how to buy yours.
• There will also be sporting action galore, with eight of the final 24 test events to be staged in this period.    
• The medals, slogan and official song of the Rio 2016 Games, as well as the workforce uniform, will be in the final stages of production.

Diving, powerlifting, taekwondo, wheelchair rugby and wrestling are the next test events (Photo: Getty Images)

150 days to go (as of 8 March):

• Furniture will begin to be installed in about 15,000 rooms in the athletes’ village and other accommodation clusters (for officials, media and workforce). The assembly process will be very precise as everything that is installed for the Games during these five months must be disassembled in two weeks.
• The sporting action keeps coming with 10 more test events in this period.
• From March, Brazilian educational channel TV Escola will start broadcasting Transforma no Ar: a series of four monthly programmes with an athlete and a teacher giving tips on how to teach different sports to students, in a simple, affordable manner.
• Currently present also in Portugal, the USA and Peru, the Rio 2016 Eduction programme Transforma will offer teaching materials to schools in all Portuguese and Spanish-speaking countries from March.
• On 21 April, the Olympic flame will be lit in the Greek city of Olympia, the home of the ancient Olympic Games. From there, it will be carried on a relay in Greece until 27 April, when it will be handed over to Brazil at a ceremony at the Panathinaiko Stadium, stage of the Athens 1896 Olympic Games, the first of the modern era.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Torch Relay will start on May 3 (Photo: Rio 2016/Alex Ferro)

100 days to go (27 April):

• On 29 April the Rio Olympic Velodrome and the Future Arena will become the last of the new venues to host test events, with track cycling and handball starting on this day.
• After leaving Greece, the torch will be on display at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, until 2 May when it sets off for Brazil.
• The Rio 2016 Olympic torch relay will begin in the capital city, Brasília, on 3 May.
• The pre-Games app and website will go live on 3 May, with a new layout and comprehensive coverage of the torch relay.
• Abraça, the Rio 2016 culture programme, will be declared open. Among various initiatives will be the launch the official Games posters, designed by 10 renowned Brazilian artists, and start of production of the official film, directed by Breno Silveira.
• Rehearsals for the opening and closing ceremonies will begin at the Moça Bonita Stadium in May, with production of the costumes, floats, props and scenery also getting underway.
• At the end of May, the Maracanã will start to be prepared to host the ceremonies and Olympic football matches.
• The design of the tickets for the Games will be revealed.
• The final six test events will be staged, finishing with athletics at the Olympic Stadium.

Carioca Arena 3, the Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Future Arena and Youth Arena will open in the coming months (Photos: Brasil2016)

50 days to go (16 June):

• Fans will start to receive their Olympic Games tickets at home in June.
• On 24 July, the Olympic Village will open its doors to welcome the stars of the Rio 2016 Games.
• On 1 August, the Games-time website and app will go live, with all the information about the greatest sporting event on the planet: athlete profiles, live results, news, videos, photos, live blog and full integration social media networks.
• Already present in 5,586 schools serving four million students in over 1,500 cities across Brazil, the Rio 2016 education programme Transforma will increase reach 12 million students and 20,000 schools by the end of the Games.
• The 95-day torch relay will enter its final stretch on route to the Maracanã, where on 5 August the big moment will arrive: with the eyes of the world watching, the Olympic cauldron will be lit and the Games of the XXXI Olympiad will begin. 

The Maracanã Stadium will host the opening ceremony on 5 August (Photo: Getty Images/Buda Mendes)