Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic bid

2016 Summer Olympics bids
Overview
2016 Summer Olympics
Details
City	Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
NOC	Brazilian Olympic Committee (BOC)
Previous games hosted
None (South America never hosted the competition). [1]

The Rio 2016 Olympic bid is the attempt by the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to be chosen by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

On September 1, 2006, among other cities like São Paulo and Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro was chosen by the Brazilian Olympic Committee (or simply BOC) as an applicant for the 2016 Games.The city has previously launched applications to host the 1936, 2004 and 2012 Olympics, but eventually failed to make the shortlist on both occasions.

Bid details

The causes appointed to explain why Rio de Janeiro failed on previous biddings, for both 2004 and 2012 events, include mainly, the general infrastructure (specially the transport), sports venues, Olympic Village, security and past experience in organization of international sporting events, and perhaps, finance.

However, during the time, Rio de Janeiro hosted the XV Pan American Games, was able to work on improvements and currently features among the favorite cities to host not only the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, but also for other important events, being considered as one of the Brazilian applicants for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which will most likely take place in Brazil.^[2]

The Pan American Games were considered by many people in Brazil as "the key proving ground for an Olympic bid". By the night of 29 July, 2007, in the middle of the closing ceremony of the games, the president of the Pan American Sports Organisation, Mr. Mario Vázquez Raña, described the Games held in Rio de Janeiro, as the best edition of the Pan American Games, even better than the 1999 Pan American Games held Winnipeg, Canada, which was previously considered the best Pan-American competition ever organized. ^[3] The positive evaluation of PASO's president allied with the success in organizing this event, makes stronger this city's bid and Rio de Janeiro a real applicant city.

On 30 July 2007 Mr. Carlos Arthur Nuzman, president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee and of the Committee Organizator of XV Pan American Games, confirmed that he's personally working on required papers, making sure all processes for the candidature acceptance will be read in time, resulting in an official bid. He said the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Mr. Cesar Maia, already had signed the declaration of candidature, and asserted that the Governments of Rio de Janeiro State and of Brazil will sign the same declaration, that's necessary and required by IOC. ^[4]

Infrastructure

The Rio Olympic Arena.

In past evaluations, Rio de Janeiro scored poorly on general infrastructure aspect. The public transport in the city needs expansion to accelerate the movement of people and avoid incidents during the Games.

For the Pan American Games, the city was committed in building a new metro line and using alternative transports, such as rafts and ferrys, but there were no attempts to built the metro lines or to develop a the program with other alternative transports. Though, several new buses lines were offered during the Games, resulting in no incidents with transports, even on Sunday, 29 July, when about 100,000 people attended to the closing ceremony. BOC President, Carlos Nuzman, said he's making sure the public transport question will be solved and is optimistic. ^[5]

Venues

Due to the Pan American Games, held in Rio between 13 July to 29 July, 2007, old sporting installations were renovated and several new venues were built, all them meeting the international requirements to host competitions of olympic level. A "Pan American Village", which capacity is up to 8,000 residents ^[6], would be used as an Olympic Village, in case Rio de Janeiro wins the right to host the Games.

Following the model developed to host the Pan-American Games, the Olympic competitions could be carried through in a ray of 25 km, spread for four polar regions in the city. ^[7]

Past experience

Brazil already experienced the organization of large-scale sporting events in the past: Brazil organized and hosted the 1950 FIFA World Cup and is organizing a bid to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup event, and São Paulo city organized the IV Pan American Games in 1963. Subsequently, due to the continental rotation policy taken by FIFA that will place the 2014 FIFA World Cup in South America, CONMEBOL has unanimously nominated Brazil as its candidate to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup, with FIFA making its final decision sometime in 2008.

On July 31, 2007, Brazil submitted its official bid for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and most likely will be the only bidders. Brazil seems hopeful of a "double hosting" of both the Olympics and World Cup, much like Germany (1972 and 1974), Mexico (1968 and 1970) and the United States (1994 and 1996). However, "double-hosting" may negatively affect Rio's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. According to Agence France-Presse, an IOC member stated that Rio is unlikely to be awarded the Olympics because, "IOC members don't like feeling they are the pudding, i.e. coming after another major sporting occasion". The World Cup will be awarded on October 30, 2007.^[8][9] This possible conflict was avoided in Mexico and Germany because the World Cup was held after the Olympics. Although the World Cup was staged in the US prior to the Atlanta Games in 1996, the nation avoided staging any World Cup games in the Atlanta region. Rio is almost certain to be used in the World Cup Playoffs, if not the Finals.

References

See also

• Chicago 2016 Olympic bid
• Madrid 2016 Olympic bid
• Tokyo 2016 Olympic bid

External links

• Rio20016.org Official bid website.
• COB.org Official website of the Brazilian Olympic Committee.

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