2016 Rio Olympics – Are You Ready For The Opening ?

The Olympics

The 2016 Olympics are already here and the opening ceremony will be held on Friday, August 5th from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Olympics will run until August 21st hosting 306 events across 42 Olympic sports. There are a total of 10,500 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees attending. The lighting of the torch has always been a mystery but this time around it is suspected that soccer legend Pelé will be doing the honors. If you haven’t been following the Olympics, don’t worry Bros I have all the main information for you. Here are some main facts of the 2016 Olympics that will make you an instant expert.

• First Olympics where 10 refugees will compete in the first refugee formed Olympic Team.
• Golf is coming back since the last time seen on the 1904 Olympics.
• Over 300,000 foreign visitors attending.
• The Olympic mascot is a mix of different animals called Vinicius (A mix between a cat and monkey)
• The mascot is expected to raise over $300 million in merchandise.
• First Olympics games held in South America.
• 7 .5 million tickets being sold from as low as $7 to almost $3000.
• 85,000 soldiers and policemen to secure the events.
• Rugby returns after 92 years.
• 130,000 employees to make the Olympic games work.
• 60,000 meals a day will be prepared to feed the athletes.
• 70,000 volunteers to make sure everything runs smooth.
• Four venue clusters, Barra, Copacabana, Deodoro and Maracana.
• The Olympic park is located in Barra.
• Free English lessons for Taxi drivers supporting the Olympics.
• A total of 2,488 medals have been made (812 gold, 812 silver and 864 bronze)
• Total cost of the Olympics is estimated at $11.6 billion.

Major Concerns

On the other hand there are some majors concerns revolving mainly around public health and safety. The Zika virus which causes birth defects is still a major concern. This caused multiple athletes to not attend the Olympics. Water pollution is in bad condition around the venues were water sports will be held. There has been multiple reports of raw sewage being pumped directly into the water source. Air pollution has also been recently discovered increasing the pubic health issue. Overall safety has always been at the top of list after some athletes were robbed and even kidnapped. Let’s all hope that Brazil can get these main issues under control so we can all enjoy the 2016 Olympics.