(ATR) With four years to go, Rio de Janeiro says it does not know an exact figure for the cost of the Games.
Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes said specific details of the budget will be made public once all Games work is complete.
"In terms of the cost of the Games we cannot give you an answer because some of the projects are still being defined" Paes said via video link at a press conference marking four years to the Games. The press conference took place at Kings College, London.
"We know how much the urban area will cost, how much some equipment will cost and we are discussing this now."
Rio 2016 CEO Leonardo Gryner gave a presentation of Rio’s Games preps so far, confirming the Hockey Arena will move from Olympic Park about 20 kilometers away to the Deodoro district. He added that the venue for rugby was "still pending".
Gryner also touched on what Rio has learned from London.
"Something we have to copy in London is their discipline and we have a lot of admiration of their model - they are very good planners. The infrastructure is different, so its impossible to copy things from one games to another but the methodology of their planning is very inspiring."
"It’s difficult to compare because in Rio, the Olympic Stadium is already ready - in London four years out they were starting the Olympic Park. In terms of schedule which is done by the IOC we are within the schedule for the implementation of the Games in Rio."
Gryner pledged that Rio 2016 would "do better" than London to fill empty seats during the Games.
"That not an exclusive problem here in London," Gryner said. "We have noticed this is a challenge for organizers but we have a program called ‘Filled Up Stadium’ and we have some ideas of what to do andmaintain the stadia full at all times."
"We would be constantly selling seats and we have to give opportunity to people who are in the surrounding area who can easily enter whenever there are empty seats. This is a challenge that all organizers have. We hope to do better than London but we understand it’s not an easy challenge."
Gryner said a team of 152 are participating in the London 2012 Observer Program.
The event was difficult for English-speaking journalists wishing to get a good understanding of what the next Olympics would be like. The press conference was conducted entirely in Portuguese, with less-than-adequate translation. Preference was given to Portuguese-speaking media despite being a unique opportunity to showcase Rio 2016 among a pool of international reporters who were all in the same city at the same time.
Rio 2016 president Carlos Arthur Nuzman was promoted as a speaker. Attendees were told he was unable to speak due to a scheduling conflict. However, Nuzman was spotted at Wimbledon watching tennis.
Written and reported in London by Christian Radnedge.
20 Years at #1:
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
