Rio de Janeiro, January 21, 2016 – With 200 days to go to the Opening Ceremony, celebrated on January 18, preparations for Rio 2016 Olympic Games enter the home straight – as organizers state in their official website.
The basketball arena, the first site unveiled since January 1, and a new sale of tickets are among the first actions this year. The scheduled programme between now and 5 August foresees:
• The selection of 12,000 volunteers to join the casts of the opening and closing ceremonies, now underway. On 25 February, the second wave of auditions will begin, lasting until 20 March.
• 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 finalize 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.
• 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.
No time to rest.
Highlight of the upcoming period will be 21 April when the Rio Olympic Flame will be lit in Ancient Olympia, Greece.