2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro

The 2016 Summer Olympics are being held in Rio de Janeiro August 5-21, and even though we will not visit until next summer, we can begin to get a feel for the atmosphere that makes up one of the largest city in Brazil as we watch as “armchair” sports enthusiasts.  It will be the first ever Olympic and Paralympic games in South America.

Rio Olympic slogan over a highway tunnel

The good news about visiting Rio a year later is that hopefully the 500,000 tourists expected for the event will have a year to return home and leave behind a city that will have spruced up for the big event the year before. 

This video “Rio Olympic City is Already Reality” (3:01) documents the city’s transformation.  The film starts with spectacular views of the recently inaugurated Museu do Amanhã (Museum of Tomorrow) and Museu de Arte do Rio (Art Museum of Rio), both in Rio's renovated waterfront district.

Viewers are then treated to shots of recently arrived high-tech trams making their way through central Rio and aerial views of the new roads, tunnels and Bus Rapid Transit corridors that now criss-cross the Olympic city.

The film then moves on to the Olympic venues that have been built or renovated for the Games, many of which will be open to the public while others will be converted into schools following the end of the festivities.

Want more?  Then watch NBCUniversal’s network and digital unprecedented 6,755 hours of broadcasting!  The opening ceremonies airs Friday night, August 5 on NBC.  Rio is just one hour ahead of the Eastern Time zone, so it will the most live Olympics ever.  Broadcasts are sure to feature such Rio icons as Copacabana Beach, Sugarloaf Mountain, and the Christ the Redeemer statue.

Generally swimming will dominate the first week’s events, with athletics during the second week.  Gymnastics straddles the first and second week of the 17-day competition.

You’ll want to watch swimming legend Michael Phelps who just won a place on the U.S. swim team for his fifth Olympics.  The most decorated Olympian in history, he has won 22 Olympic medals, 18 of them gold.

You can access a full list of spectator guides for all events so you don’t miss a single one of your favorite sports.

Olympic and Paralympic Mascots

 And just so you are in the know…the Olympic mascot is named Vinícius, and the Paralympic mascot is Tom.  Find out all about their creation and meaning here.  Nature and sustainability will be featured on the 2,488 medals produced for the Olympics. 

The official Games slogan, A New World, is featured in all their promotions.  At Rio 2016, their goal is to create a better world and leave this as a legacy to the generations to come.  The official Olympic Manifesto in full reads:

Building a new world.
With new eyes, new examples, new heroes.
Making new friends, creating new families.
Breaking down barriers.
Respecting one another, what is different, alternative – celebrating what is new.
Promoting gatherings, mixtures, unity – peace can be one step away, right there!
Surprising with new gestures.
Adopting new attitudes: all you need is the desire to change.
Because life is movement, passion, transformation.
Together, we can transform the world.
And this victory will be for all of us.
RIO 2016
A NEW WORLD

…And this, we hope, leaves a better place to visit for future travelers like us.