Rio shrugs off doubts as 100-day countdown starts
Print Edition
RIO de Janeiro yesterday launched the 100-day countdown to the Olympic Games with the government and global sports leaders insisting it will be a landmark occasion despite chaotic preparations and Brazil’s political meltdown.
Countdown events were held around the world and Rio organizers were to take over the Olympic flame in Athens to start the long journey to South America’s first Olympics.
New Zealand athletes staged a sunrise traditional haka dance on an Auckland beach to mark the day. Britain unveiled its Olympic uniform designed by Stella McCartney.
But while the Brazilian government and International Olympic Committee insist there is no turning back from the road to Rio, storm clouds remain at home and abroad.
President Dilma Rousseff could be turfed out of office through impeachment before the Games. Even her vice president, Michel Temer, who would normally take over could face action.
The economy is shrinking for the second straight year, unemployment has shot up to 10.2 percent and Olympic organizers have had to slash budgets. They say that the stadiums are 98 percent ready, however.
Rio authorities also admitted that 11 people have died over the past three years on Rio Olympics construction projects.
But IOC president Thomas Bach has predicted Rio will lay on an “excellent” Games and Brazil’s Sports Minister Ricardo Leyser insisted that the political crisis will have no impact on the event.
Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Rio 2016 Organizing Committee chairman Carlos Nuzman were to attend the handing over of the Olympic flame in Athens yesterday.
The flame will make a short stopover in Switzerland, including at the Olympic museum in Lausanne, before arriving in Brasilia on May 3.
Some 12,000 torchbearers will then carry the flame through scores of Brazilian towns and cities ahead of the opening of the Games at Rio’s Maracana stadium on August 5.
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