Rio Olympics next challenge for Brazil

Spotlight swings on country’s subsequent project after Fifa World Cup.

RIO DE JANEIRO:

The Rio de Janeiro 2016 summer Olympics move firmly into the spotlight this week with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in town to monitor progress and the football World Cup wrapping up.

The Olympics are the country’s second global sports event it has committed itself to staging, and following the end of the world’s biggest single sports event on Sunday, Rio enters the final stretch of delivering a troubled project.

Called the ‘worst ever’ preparations by IOC Vice President John Coates, Rio organisers have been with their backs to the wall from the start, trying to play catch-up with a schedule they had fallen behind.

IOC President Thomas Bach met Brazil President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia before returning to Rio to attend the World Cup final.

“We are seeing great progress and appreciate the commitment of the president and the government of Brazil for the Games,” Bach told reporters.

Brazil had to face years of criticism in the run-up to the World Cup with delays in construction and completion of stadiums, forcing world soccer’s governing body Fifa to say organisers “needed a kick up the backside.”

“The World Cup is a bit like a test event for the IOC,” said an Olympic source. “It’s a chance to learn and use that knowledge for the Rio Olympics.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2014.

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