Less than a month after Rio de Janeiro was chosen to host the 2016 Olympics, International Olympic Committee (IOC) representatives were meeting with Brazilian authorities to draw up a plan of action to prepare the Games. The meeting was taking place Friday and Saturday at the traditional Copacabana Palace hotel in Rio. Before getting started, [...]
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Swimsuit-clad revellers on Copacabana Beach waved green, yellow and blue flags and partied through the night when Rio de Janeiro pulled off its marvellous feat of winning the 2016 Olympic Games. In Copenhagen, where the decision was announced, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva burst into tears of joy, as did football legend Pele and [...]
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Brazil will find ways to ensure the safety of Rio de Janeiro’s 2016 Olympics, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge said on Thursday, after an outbreak of violence raised questions over the Games’ security. Thirty-three people have died since violence between rival gangs of drug traffickers erupted in Rio at the weekend. The city [...]
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Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promised to deploy federal police and allocate $60 million in aid to Rio de Janeiro after a weekend shootout downed a police helicopter and raised questions about the city’s ability to host safe Olympic Games. Mr. da Silva made the announcement on a day when a third policeman [...]
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Brazilian officials are insisting security won’t be a problem for the 2016 Olympics, despite drug-gang violence that plunged Rio de Janeiro into a day of bloody chaos just two weeks after it was picked to host the games. An hourslong firefight between rival gangs in one of the city’s slums killed a dozen people, injured [...]
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With a gang war looming, the 2016 Olympics have suddenly given Arthur and other Rio slum kids a chance to dream A cloud fell across the face of Arthur’s mother and her son bowed his head as she began to speak. She was afraid, she said, because everyone knows there will soon be a war [...]
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When Brazil was awarded the rights for hosting the 2016 Olympic Games, analysts were astounded not so much by the fact that Rio de Janeiro came out on top, but that it won so convincingly. Everyone in Olympic circles had expected that the presence of Barack and Michelle Obama in Copenhagen would tilt the voting [...]
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Excuse me if I’m not dancing up and down Copacabana beach over here, but aside from a few thousand Brazilian fans, just who stands to benefit from golf’s inclusion at the 2016 Olympics? The answer is clearly not the Games themselves, whose currency can only be devalued by an event seen by the world’s best [...]
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Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who as a boy sold peanuts on the street, beat the world’s two richest nations for the 2016 Olympic Games. Now, he must defeat Rio de Janeiro’s violent crime, which residents call the biggest cloud over their city’s postcard-perfect bid. Lula will also have to push Rio, the [...]
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When Rio de Janeiro was named host of the 2016 Olympic Games, many Americans were left in shock. U.S. President Barack Obama and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, made personal appeals to bring the XXXI Olympiad to their home countries. The latter returned to Brazil, the world’s 10th largest economy, having secured [...]
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