RIO DE JANEIRO (NBC) — With one month to go until the Olympics, workers at the venues are finishing the last details to have everything ready before Rio de Janeiro welcomes thousands of athletes and visitors for the 2016 games.
The volleyball venue, already up in the iconic Copacabana Beach, was planned to neighbor the broadcast studios and it is also next to a large store that is set to sell Olypmic souvenirs.
Rio’s venue management director said everything will be ready on time.
Gustavo Nascimento said a massive cleanup of the venues is set to start July 15 and athletes will have accessto all venues on July 24.
“We are scheduled to have everything done by the 18th of July,” he said. “(On the) 15 (of July) we start the final round of cleaning; just as we start the training of volunteers, start (to) welcome the volunteers for the final training on the spot. (Then) on 24th of July, we welcome the athletes with everything ready for training here on the Olympic Park.”
The “dream” of the games have been interrupted by political crisis and marred by the impeachment of suspended president Dilma Rouseff, along with security threats and an increasing violence in
Rio that seems small in comparison to the fear of the Zika virus outbreak.
Slow ticket sales and water pollution in venues for sailing, rowing and distance-swimming, are just some of the challenges the event stands against.
Nascimento said the risks are nothing to be concerned about, insisting the city has “experience” organizing large events.
“Rio is ready for big events a long time ago; we are going to be ready for the Olympics,” he said. “There are still tickets available very, very high quality tickets on a campaign that we are doing every
Thursday. We are, absolutely, sure that the risks are not anything to be concerned (about). It’s going to be an amazing party. Brazilians are great on sports festivals as we proved in the last events.”
About 10,500 athletes and up to 500,000 foreign visitors are expected for the games.