Important facts about Rio Olympics 2016

The 2016 Summer Olympics officially known as the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, and commonly known as Rio 2016, is a major international multi-sport event in the tradition of the Olympic Games due to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016.

The opening and the closing ceremony will take place in the Maracanã Stadium. It will be the first Olympic Games ever held in South America. Up until today, the Summer Olympics have been held 27 times (6 editions in North America, 16 in Europe, 3 in Asia and 2 in Oceania). The first Olympic Games (Olympic Games of the antiquity) were held in 776 in Olympia (Greek) and the first Olympic Games of the modern era in 1896 in Athens (Greek). 10,500 athletes from 205 different countries will take part in the Summer Olympics 2016. 306 competitions in 42 different sports will be held in 17 days. Golf (returning after 112 years) and Rugby (returning after 92 years) will be the “new” sports of the Olympic Games. A few of the football competitions will not only be held in Rio de Janeiro, they will be hosted by Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Salvador and São Paulo. 7.5 million tickets are available and are already up for sale. Ticket prices range from 40 Brazilian Real (10.89 Euro) to 4,600 Brazilian Real (1,252 Euro). The total costs of the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio de Janeiro will mount up to 37.6 billion Brazilian Real (10.24 billion Euro): 24.1 billion Real (6.56 billion Euro) for the infrastructure of the city, 6.5 billion Real (1.77 billion Euro) for sports facilities and 7 billion Real (1.91 billion Euro) for the operation and organization of the event. Until 2016, there will be 45 events held to test the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2016. In 2016, there will be 8,000 employees, 85,000 third party employees and 45,000 volunteers working for the Olympic Committee Rio 2016. The slogan of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro is Viva sua paixão (Live your passion).

Football starts early to accommodate all of the group games, so the first Olympians in action at Rio 2016 will be the South African and Swedish women’s teams. Their game kicks off at 17:00 inside Rio’s Joao Havelange Olympic Stadium.

Zimbabwe make their Olympic football debut when the country’s women – by far the lowest ranked by Fifa in the tournament at 93rd – play world number two Germany in Sao Paulo at 22:00.

Brazil men’s football team are one of the feature attractions of the Games for the host nation. Barcelona forward Neymar is one of three over-age players allowed in what must largely be an under-23 squad under Olympic rules. Brazil begin their Olympic campaign against South Africa in the nation’s capital, Brasilia, at 20:00 – after Iraq play Denmark in the earlier game.

Football is again the only sport in action. Among the day’s other games, Portugal face Argentina in Rio (22:00) and Mexico face Germany in Salvador (21:00).