We are still one year away from it, but Brazil’s heart is already beating faster. The Brazilian generous heart leaps up when confronted with two of its passions: welcoming people from all over the world and competing with enthusiasm and fair play in a superb sport performance.
We have seen it happening during the FIFA World Cup. It will be like that again, beginning on August 5th 2016, when we will light with the Olympic flame our passion for sport and will hoist the flag bearing the five interlocking rings at our magnificent Maracanã stadium.
We have built a vigorous culture of peace and work. That set of values guides our hard work to turn these coming Olympics into the best ever world sports festivity. We have achieved it during the FIFA World Cup and we have everything it takes to repeat it at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
The preparation process for the Games began with investment in the most important asset of all: our athletes. It went on with massive investments in sport infrastructure and will reach its peak with the great ongoing urban restructuring of Rio de Janeiro – doubtlessly the most beautiful natural landscape for the Olympic Games since Ancient Greece.
Throughout the last years we made huge public investments to ensure adequate material support to our athletes, their coaches and teams, with such programmes as the “Athlete Scholarship” and the “Brazilian Medals Plan”.
These investments in people and infrastructure will bring far reaching results in future years, beyond the time frame of the Olympic Games. Indeed, we are disseminating sport practice in our country among the young, with investments in sport facilities for a wide range of sport modalities throughout the country. This will be the greatest legacy that we will reap from the Rio 2016 Games.
Two thirds of the financial resources allocated to the Rio 2016 Games are being invested in urban infrastructure works for the city. A wide range of infrastructure works are under way: a new metro line, a tramway connecting the whole of downtown Rio and express lanes for buses which will interconnect all competition venues.
The aim of much of this investment is to improve public transportation and commuting for people during and after the games, in particular people who live in the most remote quarters and need public transportation of high quality.
Urban transformation is not all. The Rio Harbour area, for example, will become a new
leisure and culture quarter for local population and for thousands of tourists which we receive each year. In the future, “Porto Maravilha” will house new office and residential buildings.
The Rio 2016 Olympic Games strongly attracted investments from the Brazilian private sector – and not only for sponsoring or for building and modernising the new hotel network.
For example, the Barra Olympic Park, was built to a great extent with private investment, including works on local infrastructure.
The Olympic Village, that will host athletes from all over the world, is also being constructed by the private sector, which has begun to sell these apartments. It is possible to state, therefore, that the Rio 2016 Games will receive one of the highest levels of private investment compared to previous Olympic Games in the last 20 years.
The Deodoro Sport Complex, one of the competition venues, located in the middle of a deprived area and having the largest concentration of youngsters of Rio de Janeiro, will become a space for local population to practice radical sports. It will also be a training stage for our best athletes.
The Barra Olympic Park will be the foundation for the future Olympic training center, responsible for preparing the country’s future high level athletes. It will also enhance sport cooperation with other countries, especially with our neighbours from South America.
In total, there are 12 training centres and 261 sport initiation centers, in addition to the 46 official athletics tracks. The investment on the sport legacy in Rio and in the country sums up to US$1.2 billion.
We are also providing for the cost-efficiency, as well as the sustainability of the facilities. One example is Future Arena, the venue of the handball competitions at the Olympic Park. The Arena is made with temporary modules, which will be dismantled after the Games and converted into four schools.
Rio’s infrastructure and Olympic projects are already being tested with the first events taking place throughout the city. By early 2016, we will have held competitions in 40 sports modalities.
Brazil is fully prepared for the upcoming Games. All parties will remain fully committed until the end of the Paralympic Games in September 2016. Our energy to overcome challenges will be demonstrated to all the 15,000
Olympic and Paralympic athletes, the thousands of spectators and the billions of viewers.
We are waiting for you with open arms and hearts.