Games of the XXXI Olympiad

Host city	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Motto	A new world (Portuguese: Um mundo novo)
Nations participating	207
Athletes participating	11,239
Events	306 in 28 sports
Opening ceremony	5 August
Closing ceremony	21 August
Stadium	Maracanã Stadium

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2016 Summer Olympics[show]

The 2016 Summer Olympics (Portuguese: Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016),^[a] officially known as the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, and commonly known as Rio 2016, are a major international multi-sport event in the tradition of the Olympic Games as governed by the International Olympic Committee to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 5 August to 21 August 2016, with preliminary competition in football to begin on 3 August 2016.

A record number of countries are participating in a record number of sports. 11,239 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), including first time entrants Kosovo and South Sudan, are scheduled to take part.^[1] With 306 sets of medals, the games will feature 28 Olympic sports — including rugby sevens and golf, which were added by the International Olympic Committee in 2009. These sporting events will take place at 33 venues in the host city and at 5 venues in the cities of São Paulo (Brazil’s largest city), Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Brasília (Brazil’s capital), and Manaus.

These will be the first Summer Olympic Games under the IOC presidency of Thomas Bach.^[1] The host city of Rio de Janeiro was announced at the 121st IOC Session held in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 2 October 2009. Rio will become the first South American city to host the Summer Olympics. These will be the first games to be held in a Portuguese-speaking country, the first to be held entirely during the host country’s winter season (the 2000 games began on 15 September – five days before the Southern Hemisphere’s spring equinox), the first since 1968 to be held in Latin America, and the first since 2000 (and third overall) to be held in theSouthern Hemisphere.^[2]

The lead-up to these games have been marked by controversies—including the instability of the country’s federal government, as well as health and safety concerns surrounding the Zika virus and significant pollution in the Guanabara Bay, as well as a doping scandal involving Russia which has affected the participation of its athletes in these Games.

Bidding process

The bidding process for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games was officially launched on 16 May 2007.^[3] The first step for each city was to submit an initial application to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by 13 September 2007, confirming their intention to bid. Completed official bid files, containing answers to a 25-question IOC form, were to be submitted by each applicant city by 14 January 2008. Four candidate cities were chosen for the shortlist on 4 June 2008: Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo (which hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics and will host again in 2020). The IOC did not promote Doha to the Candidature phase, despite scoring higher than selected candidate city Rio de Janeiro, because of their intent of hosting the Olympics in October, outside of the IOC’s sporting calendar. Prague and Baku also failed to make the cut.^[4]

Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco headed the 10-member Evaluation Commission, having also chaired the evaluation commission for the 2012 Summer Olympics bids. The commission made on-site inspections in the second quarter of 2009. They issued a comprehensive technical appraisal for IOC members on 2 September, one month before elections.^[5]

Many restrictions are in place designed to prevent bidding cities from communicating with or influencing directly the 115 voting members. Cities may not invite any IOC member to visit nor may they send anything that could be construed as a gift. Nonetheless, bidding cities invest large sums in their PR and media programs in an attempt to indirectly influence the IOC members by garnering domestic support, support from sports media and general international media.

Ultimately, you are communicating with just 115 people and each one has influencers and pressure groups but you are still speaking to no more than about 1,500 people, perhaps 5,000 in the broadest sense. It is not just about getting ads out there but it is about a targeted and very carefully planned campaign.

— Jon Tibbs, a consultant on the Tokyo bid^[6]

The final voting was held on 2 October 2009, in Copenhagen with Madrid and Rio de Janeiro perceived as favourites to land the games. Chicago and Tokyo were eliminated after the first and second rounds of voting, respectively, while Rio de Janeiro took a significant lead over Madrid heading into the final round. The lead held and Rio de Janeiro was announced as host of 2016 Summer Olympics. Failed bids from other South American cities include Buenos Aires (1936, 1956, 1968, 2004) and Brasília, which withdrew during the 2000 Summer Olympic bidding process.

2016 Summer Olympics bidding results[7]
City	NOC	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	26	46	66
Madrid	Spain	28	29	32
Tokyo	Japan	22	20	—
Chicago	United States	18	—	—

Development and preparation

Map of the venues

Velodrome, Carioca Arena 3, 2 and 1and Future Arena (in the background), and the Olympic Tennis Center (on the right) at Barra Olympic Park

Maracanã Stadium

João Havelange Olympic Stadium

Olympic Whitewater Stadium

Maria Lenk Aquatic Center

Rio Olympic Arena

Olympic Tennis Center

Olympic Aquatics Stadium

Future Arena

Youth Arena

On 26 June 2011 it was reported on AroundTheRings.com that Roderlei Generali, the COO of the Rio de Janeiro Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, resigned just one year after taking the job at ROOC. This comes just five months after CCO Flávio Pestana quit for personal reasons.^[8] Pestana withdrew later during the 2012 Summer Paralympics. Renato Ciuchin was then appointed as COO.^[9]

Venues and infrastructure

Events will take place at eighteen existing venues (eight of which require some redevelopment), nine new venues constructed for the Summer Games, and seven temporary venues which will be removed following the games.^[10]

Each event will be held in one of four geographically segregated Olympic clusters: Barra, Copacabana, Deodoro, and Maracanã. The same was done for the 2007 Pan American Games.^[11][12] Several of the venues will be located at the Barra Cluster Olympic Park.^[10]

The largest venue at the games in terms of seating capacity is the Maracanã Stadium, officially known as Jornalista Mário Filho Stadium, which can hold 74,738 spectators and will serve as the official Olympic Stadium, hosting the opening and closing ceremonies as well as football finals.^[10] In addition, five venues outside Rio de Janeiro will host football events, in the cities of Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Manaus, Salvador and São Paulo.^[10]

The athletes’ village is claimed to become the largest in Olympic history. Fittings will include about 80,000 chairs, 70,000 tables, 29,000 mattresses, 60,000 clothes hangers, 6,000 television sets and 10,000 smartphones.^[13]

Olympic park

The Barra Olympic Park is a cluster of nine sporting venues in Barra da Tijuca, in the west zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil that will be used for the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2016 Summer Paralympics. The site of the Olympic Park was formerly occupied by the Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet, also known as Jacarepaguá.^[14]

The nine venues to be used within the Olympic Park are:^[15][16] Carioca Arena 1: basketball (capacity: 16,000); Carioca Arena 2: wrestling, judo (capacity: 10,000); Carioca Arena 3: fencing, taekwondo (capacity: 10,000);Future Arena: handball (capacity: 12,000); Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre: diving, synchronised swimming, water polo (capacity: 5,000); Olympic Aquatics Stadium: swimming, water polo play-offs (capacity: 15,000); Olympic Tennis Centre: tennis (capacity: 10,000 Main Court); Rio Olympic Arena: gymnastics (capacity: 12,000); and Rio Olympic Velodrome: track cycling (capacity: 5,000).

Football

Additionally some football games will take place at 5 venues in the cities of São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Brasília and Manaus.

• 

  Arena da Amazônia
  Manaus

• 

  Arena Corinthians
  São Paulo

• 

  Arena Fonte Nova
  Salvador

• 

  Estádio Nacional
  Brasília

• 

  Mineirão
  Belo Horizonte

Urban renovation

Rio’s historical downtown is undergoing a large-scale urban waterfront revitalization project called Porto Maravilha.^[17] It covers 5 km² (1.9 sq mi) in area. The project aims to redevelop the port area increasing the city center’s attractiveness and enhancing Rio’s competitiveness position in the global economy. The urban renovation involves: 700 km (430 mi) of public networks for water supply, sanitation, drainage, electricity, gas and telecom; 4 km (2.5 mi) of tunnels; 70 km (43 mi) of roads; 650 km² (250 sq mi) of sidewalks; 17 km (11 mi) of bike path; 15,000 trees; three sanitation treatment plants. As part of this renovation, a new tram will be built and will run from the Santos Dumont Airport to Rodoviária Novo Rio. It was due to open in April 2016.^[18]

The Games require more than 200 kilometres of security fencing. To store material, Rio 2016 is using two warehouses. A 15,000 square metre warehouse in Barra da Tijuca in western Rio is being used to assemble and supply the furniture and fittings for the Olympic Village. A second warehouse of 90,000 square metres, located in Duque de Caxias near the roads that provide access to the venues, contains all the equipment needed for the sporting events.^[13]

Technology

The Rio Olympic Games will have brand-new robotic technology created by Mark Roberts Motion Control to broaden the reach of photographers at multiple venues.^[19]

It was announced August 1st 2016 that Microsoft Azure has been selected by NBC Olympics to provide cloud encoding and hosting with video workflows for NBC Olympics’ production of the Games ^[20]

Financing

Phase I – Applicant City

Phase II – Candidate City

Public revenues

Private revenues

¹LATAM Airlines contributed with R$1,233,726.00 in the form of discounts in air tickets.

Note: The residual balance was used to fund the first months of operation of Rio 2016 Organizing Committee.^[21]

Investment

Note: The total investment in Olympic park and public transport in Rio to the 2016 Summer Olympics.^[22]

Torch relay

The Olympic flame was lit at the temple of Hera in Olympia on 21 April 2016, the traditional start of the Greek phase of the torch relay. On 27 April the flame was handed over to the Brazilian organizers at a ceremony at thePanathenaic Stadium in Athens. A brief stop was made in Switzerland to visit the IOC headquarters and the Olympic Museum in Lausanne as well as the United Nations Office at Geneva.^[23]

The torch relay began its Brazilian journey on 3 May at the capital Brasília. The torch relay will visit more than 300 Brazilian cities (including all the 26 states capitals and the Brazilian Federal District), with the last part to be held in the city of Rio de Janeiro,^[24] lighting the cauldron during the 2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony on 5 August.

Ticketing

The ticket prices were announced on 16 September 2014, all of which will be sold in Brazilian Reals (BRL). A total of 7.5 million tickets will be sold; 200,000 tickets less compared to the 2012 Summer Olympics, because the size of many arenas is smaller. Ticket prices range from BRL 40 for many events to BRL 4,600 for the most expensive seats at the opening ceremony. About 3.8 million of these tickets will be available for BRL 70 or less.^[25][26]The street events such as road cycling, race walk, and the marathon can be watched along their routes for free.

The Games

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony will take place in the Maracanã Stadium on 5 August 2016.

Sports

The 2016 Summer Olympic program features 28 sports and a total of 41 disciplines and 306 events.

New sports

There were two open spots for sports and initially seven sports began the bidding for inclusion in the 2016 program. Baseball and softball, which were dropped from the program in 2005, karate, squash, golf, roller sports, andrugby union all applied to be included. Leaders of the seven sports held presentations in front of the IOC executive board in June 2009.^[27]

In August, the executive board initially gave its approval to rugby sevens—a seven-player version of rugby union—by a majority vote, thus removing baseball, roller sports, and squash from contention. Among the remaining three—golf, karate, and softball, the board approved golf as a result of consultation. The final decision regarding the remaining two sports was made on 9 October 2009, the final day of the 121st IOC Session. A new system was in place at this session; a sport now needed only a simple majority from the full IOC committee for approval rather than the two-thirds majority previously required.^[28][29] International Golf Federation executive director Antony Scanlon said that the top players, including Tiger Woods and Annika Sörenstam, would show their continued support of golf’s Olympic involvement by participating in the events.^[30]

The International Sailing Federation announced in May 2012 that windsurfing would be replaced at the 2016 Olympics by kitesurfing,^[31] but this decision was reversed in November.^[32] The IOC announced in January 2013 that it would review the status of cycling events, following Lance Armstrong’s admission of using performance-enhancing drugs and accusations that the cycling’s governing body had covered up doping.^[33]

In contrast to the exception during the 2012 Olympics, the International Gymnastics Federation announced that these Games will have a gala event for gymnastics.^[34]

Participating National Olympic Committees

All 206 National Olympic Committees have qualified at least one athlete.^{[citation needed]} The first three nations to qualify athletes for the Games were Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands who each qualified four athletes for the team dressage by winning medals in the team event at the 2014 FEI World Equestrian Games.^[35]

As host nation, Brazil has received automatic entry for some sports including in all cycling disciplines and six places for weightlifting events.^[36][37] The 2016 Summer Olympics are the first games in which Kosovo and South Sudan are eligible to participate. Bulgarian weightlifters were banned from Rio Olympics for numerous anti-doping violations.^[38]

Kuwait was banned in October 2015 for the second time in five years over government interference in the country’s Olympic committee.^[39]

Refugee athletes

Due to the European migrant crisis and other reasons, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will allow athletes to compete as Independent Olympians under the Olympic Flag. In the previous Olympic Games, refugees were ineligible to compete because of their inability to represent their home NOCs.^[40] On 2 March 2016, the IOC finalized plans for a specific team of Refugee Olympic Athletes (ROA); out of 43 refugee athletes deemed potentially eligible, 10 were chosen to form the team.^[41]

Independent athletes

In November 2015, Russia was provisionally suspended from all international athletic competitions by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) following a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report into adoping program in the country.^[42] The IAAF announced that it would allow individual Russian athletes to apply for “exceptional eligibility” to participate in the Games as “neutral” athletes, if it were independently verified that they had not engaged in doping nor the Russian doping program.^[43]

On 24 July 2016, the IOC rejected the IAAF and WADA’s recommendations to allow clean athletes to compete neutrally, stating that the Olympic Charter “does not foresee such ‘neutral athletes'” and that it was up to each country’s National Olympic Committee to decide which athletes would be competing.^[44]

Calendar

This is currently based on the schedule released on the same day as ticket sales began, 31 March 2015.^[45]

All dates are Brasília Time (UTC–3)

OC

Opening ceremony

●

Event competitions

1

Gold medal events

EG

Exhibition gala

CC

Closing ceremony

August		3 Wed	4 Thu	5 Fri	6 Sat	7 Sun	8 Mon	9 Tue	10 Wed	11 Thu	12 Fri	13 Sat	14 Sun	15 Mon	16 Tue	17 Wed	18 Thu	19 Fri	20 Sat	21 Sun	Gold medal events
Ceremonies (opening / closing)				OC																CC
Archery				●	1	1	●	●	●	1	1										4
Athletics											3	5	4	5	5	4	6	7	7	1	47
Badminton										●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1	2	1		5
Basketball					●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1	2
Boxing					●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1	1	1	1	1	3	4	13
Canoeing	Slalom					●	●	1	1	2											16
	Sprint													●	4	●	4	●	4
Cycling	Road cycling				1	1			2												18
	Track cycling									1	2	2	1	1	3
	BMX															●	●	2
	Mountain biking																		1	1
Diving						1	1	1	1		●	●	1	●	1	●	1	●	1		8
Equestrian					●	●	●	2	●	●	1		●	1	●	1		1			6
Fencing					1	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1								10
Field hockey					●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1			2
Football		●	●		●	●		●	●		●	●			●	●		1	1		2
Golf										●	●	●	1			●	●	●	1		2
Gymnastics	Artistic				●	●	1	1	1	1			4	3	3	EG					18
	Rhythmic																	●	1	1
	Trampolining										1	1
Handball					●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1	2
Judo					2	2	2	2	2	2	2										14
Modern pentathlon																	●	1	1		2
Rowing					●	●	●	●	2	4	4	4									14
Rugby sevens					●	●	1	●	●	1											2
Sailing							●	●	●	●	●	●	2	2	2	2	2				10
Shooting					2	2	2	1	2	1	2	2	1								15
Swimming					4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4		1	1						34
Synchronized swimming													●	●	1		●	1			2
Table tennis					●	●	●	●	1	1	●	●	●	●	1	1					4
Taekwondo																2	2	2	2		8
Tennis					●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1	3								5
Triathlon																	1		1		2
Volleyball	Beach volleyball				●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1				4
	Indoor volleyball				●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1
Water polo					●		●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1		2
Weightlifting					1	2	2	2	2		2	1	1	1	1						15
Wrestling													2	2	2	3	3	2	2	2	18
Total gold medal events					12	14	14	15	20	19	24	21	22	17	25	16	23	22	30	12	306
Cumulative total					12	26	40	55	75	94	118	139	161	178	203	219	242	264	294	306
August		3 Wed	4 Thu	5 Fri	6 Sat	7 Sun	8 Mon	9 Tue	10 Wed	11 Thu	12 Fri	13 Sat	14 Sun	15 Mon	16 Tue	17 Wed	18 Thu	19 Fri	20 Sat	21 Sun	Gold medal events

Logo

The official emblem for the 2016 Summer Olympics was designed by the Brazilian agency Tatíl Design and unveiled on 31 December 2010.^[46] The logo represents three figures, in the yellow, green, and blue of the Brazilian flag, joined at the arms and in a triple embrace, with the overall shape reflecting that of Sugarloaf Mountain. The logo was based on four concepts: contagious energy, harmonious diversity, exuberant nature, and Olympic spirit. The Rio firm Tatíl designed the winning entry for the logo in a competition involving 139 agencies.^[47]

The logo has been noted as evoking Henri Matisse‘s painting Dance. There were also allegations by the Colorado-based Telluride Foundation that the logo had been plagiarized from its own. While also consisting of several figures linked in motion, the Telluride Foundation logo contains four figures. This is not the first time that the foundation had alleged plagiarism of its logo by a Brazilian event; in 2004, the linked figures element had been copied for the logo of Carnival celebrations in Salvador. Tatíl agency director Fred Gelli defended the design, stating that the concept of figures linked in embrace was not inherently original as it was “an ancient reference” and “in thecollective unconscious“. Gelli cited Dance as an influence of the logo’s concept, and stated that the designers had intentionally aimed to make the interpretation of the concept as dissimilar to others as possible.^[48]

Official mascot

The official mascots of the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics were unveiled on 24 November 2014. The Olympic mascot Vinicius, named after musician Vinicius de Moraes, carries design traits of mammals and represents Brazilian wildlife. According to their fictional backgrounds, the mascots “were both born from the joy of Brazilians after it was announced that Rio would host the Games.”^[49] Brand director Beth Lula stated that the mascots are intended to reflect the diversity of Brazil’s culture and people. The names of the mascots were determined by a public vote won over two other sets of names, tallying 44 percent of 323,327 votes, whose results were announced on 14 December 2014.^[50][51]

Event times

Swimming heats will be held beginning at 13:00 BRT (UTC−3). Swimming finals will be held from 22:00 to 00:00 BRT. Some beach volleyball matches will begin at midnight BRT.^[52] Meanwhile, each track and field morning session will include at least one final. There will be at least one final during each of the six morning sessions in the stadium. Eight stadium events will hold morning session finals, a first at the Olympics since 1988. The first is the women’s 10,000m on the first day of track and field competition on Friday 12 August, one week after the Opening Ceremony. The others are the men’s discus (13 August), women’s 3000m steeplechase and hammer throw (15 August), men’s triple jump and women’s discus (16 August), men’s 3000m steeplechase (17 Aug.) and men’s 400m hurdles (18 Aug.).The men’s 100m finals will begin at 22:35 BRT on 14 August. The women’s 100m final is the night before at 22:35 BRT. The men’s 200m final is Thursday 18 August at 22:30 BRT. The women’s 200m final is 17 Aug at 22:30 BRT. The men’s 4 × 100 m relay final is Friday 19 August at 22:35 BRT.^[53][54]

Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony will also take place at the Maracanã Stadium on 21 August 2016.

Concerns and controversies

An ongoing outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus in Brazil has raised fears regarding its potential impact on athletes and visitors. Organizers plan to perform daily inspections of Olympic venues to prevent puddles of stagnant water that allow mosquitoes to breed.^[55] Zika virus transmission was also attributed to inefficient sewage treatment in the area, and sewage treatment is being improved in preparation for the Games.^[56] In May 2016, a group of 150 physicians and scientists sent an open letter to the World Health Organization, calling upon them to, according to co-author Arthur Caplan, have “an open, transparent discussion of the risks of holding the Olympics as planned in Brazil”. The WHO dismissed the request, stating that “cancelling or changing the location of the 2016 Olympics will not significantly alter the international spread of Zika virus”, and that there was “no public health justification” for postponing them.^[57][58][59] Some athletes are not attending the Games because of the epidemic (see list).

The Guanabara Bay, whose waters will be used for sailing and windsurfing competitions, is heavily polluted. Among the chief causes of the pollution are uncollected trash fed into the bay via polluted rivers and slums along the coast. Pollution of the Guanabara has been a long-term issue. Officials promised at the Earth Summit in 1992 that they would begin to address the pollution but previous attempts to do so have been insufficient. As an aspect of their bid for the Games, Rio once again committed to making efforts towards cleaning the bay.^[60][61] However, some of these proposed initiatives have faced budgetary issues.^[62] Prior to these efforts, only 17% of Rio’s sewage was treated;^[63] this raw sewage also leaked into the bay. Although Mayor of Rio Eduardo Paes stated that the city may not be able to reach its goal of having 80% of sewage treated,^[64] at least 60% of sewage was treated by March 2016, with a projected goal of 65% of sewage being treated by the time the Olympics start.^[65]

In 2014, Operation Car Wash, an investigation by the Federal Police of Brazil, uncovered unprecedented money laundering and corruption at the state-controlled oil company Petrobras. In early 2015, a series of protests against alleged corruption by the government of President Dilma Rousseff began in Brazil, triggered by revelations that numerous politicians were involved in the Petrobras affair. By early 2016, the scandal had escalated into a full-blown political crisis affecting not only President Rousseff, but also former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, resulting in massive demonstrations all over the country involving millions of protesters,^[66] both anti and pro-Rousseff.^[67][68] At the same time, Brazil faces its worst economic recession since the 1990s, raising questions about whether the country is adequately prepared for the Games against a volatile political and economic backdrop. On 12 May, President Rousseff was stripped of her powers and duties for 180 days, after an impeachment vote in the Federal Senate, thus Vice President Michel Temer will be acting president during the Games.^[69]

Since the award of the 2016 Olympics to Rio de Janeiro, the city’s crime problems have received more attention. Rio’s mayor has admitted that there are “big issues” facing the city in securing the Games from violence. However, he also said that such concerns and issues were presented to the IOC throughout the bidding process.^[70] The governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro also highlighted the fact that London faced security problems, with a terrorist attack occurring on the day following the IOC session that chose the city to host the 2012 Olympic Games. The estimate is that 5,000 men of the National Public Security Force and 22,000 military officers (14,800 Army; 5,900 Navy and 1,300 of the Brazilian Air Force), in addition to the fixed quota of Rio January, will act during the Olympic Games.^[71] On 21 July 2016, two weeks before the scheduled start of the Games, Brazilian Federal Police busted an Islamic jihadist terrorist ring plotting to wreak havoc in a manner similar to the 1972 Munich massacre. 10 people allied with ISIS were arrested with two more on the run. The terror group has been aggressively encouraging lone wolf attacks to target athletes from the UK, US, France and Israel, suggesting the use of poisons or explosives attached to drones.^[72]

While the whole city is undergoing major infrastructure improvements, there are concerns that some projects will never materialise.^[73] On 21 April—the day that the Olympic torch was lit—a 50 metres (164 ft) section of the Tim Maia bike path, crossing the Oscar Niemeyer Avenue in São Conrado neighborhood and a part of the legacy of the games, was hit by a giant wave and collapsed. Two pedestrians fell into the ocean to their deaths,^[74] and three were injured.^[75] The athlete’s village has been described as the largest in Olympic history. Some officials have deemed the athletes’ village as ‘unlivable’ and unsafe because of major plumbing and electrical hazards a fortnight before the Olympic Games are due to open. Blocked toilets, leaking pipes, exposed wiring, darkened stairwells where no lighting has been installed and dirty floors are among the reported problems at some apartments in the complex. More than 500 employees of the local Olympic committee are working to fix the problems reported by the delegations.^[76]

In November 2015, Russia‘s track and field team was provisionally suspended from all international athletic competitions by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) following a World Anti-Doping Agency(WADA) report into a doping program in the country.^[42] On 18 July 2016, an independent investigation commissioned by WADA reported that Russia’s Ministry of Sport and Federal Security Service had operated a “state-dictated” system to implement an extensive doping program and to cover up positive samples. Based on the finding the International Olympics Committee called for an emergency meeting to consider banning Russia from the Summer Olympics.^[77] The IOC decided against completely banning Russian participation and instead decided to set additional, stricter requirements for all Russian participants entered into the Olympic Games.^[78] As of 1 August 2016, out of the 387 athletes declared by Russia for the competition, at least 117 have been removed because of doping.^[79]

Broadcasting

Olympic Broadcasting Services serves as the host broadcaster for these Games; produced from a total of 52 mobile units, OBS will distribute 40,000 hours of television footage and 60,000 hours of digital footage of the Games to its international rightsholders; for the first time in Olympic history, digital-oriented footage will outnumber the amount of television-oriented footage. The International Broadcast Centre was constructed in the Barra da Tijuc cluster.^[80] NHK and OBS will once again film portions of the Games, including the Opening ceremony and selected events, in 8K resolution video. Additionally, expanding upon a 180-degree trial at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics, 85 hours of video content will be originated in 360-degree virtual reality formats. This content will be available exclusively to Samsung Gear VR devices.^[81] In the United States, NBC will offer 4K content, downconverted from the 8K footage and with HDR and Dolby Atmos support, to participating television providers.^[82] Owing to their expertise in broadcasts of these sports, NBC and Sky New Zealand staff will handle the production of the golf and rugby sevens events.^[80]

In August 2009, the IOC reached a deal to sell domestic broadcast rights to the 2016 Summer Olympics to Grupo Globo. Replacing Rede Record, the deal covers free-to-air coverage on Rede Globo, pay TV, and digital rights to the Games. In turn, Globo sub-licensed partial free-to-air rights to Rede Record, along with Rede Bandeirantes. IOC board member Richard Carrión described the agreement as “unprecedented”, touting that “by working with Brazil’s leading media organizations, we are confident that this represents a great deal for Olympic fans in the region. There will be a huge increase in the amount of Olympic action broadcast, both during and outside Games time, and Brazilians will have more choice of how, when and where they follow their Olympic Games.”^[83]