ASOIF Urges Rio Olympic Organizers to Maintain Focus

(ATR) The Summer Olympic federations body says venue operational planning is the next important step in Rio.

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Buildings stand under construction in the athlete's village and park for the 2016 Summer Olympics in this aerial photo taken over the Barra da Tijuca neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Friday, Aug. 22, 2014. Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes said last month he intends to use the success of the World Cup as a shield against any skepticism about the Olympics, which will cost more than $15 billion in public and private spending. Photographer: Dado Galdieri/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Buildings stand under construction in the athlete's village and park for the 2016 Summer Olympics in this aerial photo taken over the Barra da Tijuca neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Friday, Aug. 22, 2014. Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes said last month he intends to use the success of the World Cup as a shield against any skepticism about the Olympics, which will cost more than $15 billion in public and private spending. Photographer: Dado Galdieri/Bloomberg via Getty Images

(ATR) The Summer Olympic federations body says venue operational planning is the next important step in Rio.

Andrew Ryan, director of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations, tells Around the Ringsthat the umbrella body is "very happy" that federations are coming back from Rio reporting good progress on venues.

Since the IOC’s crisis meeting with summer Olympic federations in April, he said Rio 2016’s progress had "changed quite dramatically".

But he warned that Rio 2016 still had no time to lose to deliver venues on schedule and in time for test events.

"We must now realize that construction is not the end of this at all. It’s a very high priority, but with less than two years to go, they have to now make the switch to operational aspects," he said.

Gilbert Felli, the IOC’s troubleshooter for the Rio Games, told ATR last month that velodrome construction was on "theedge of the time limit"and the International Broadcast Center would be "tough to deliver" by the October 2015 deadline.

The ASOIF council reported "considerable progress" across the Rio 2016 project after its meeting on Friday.

"Although timelines remain tight for the construction of the venues, it is considered that progress with operational planning and implementation must increasingly be the priority," ASOIF said in a statement.

"As part of the accelerated efforts to deliver the Games to the highest possible level and on time, the IOC requested that ASOIF play a greater role in the monitoring of progress particularly in operational matters.

"ASOIF works very closely with the sports department of the IOC, and all havebecome more coordinated through access to ASOIF’s monitoring system for both the IOC and the Rio 2016 organizing committee together with regular meetings with the IOC to assess progress," the statement added.

ASOIF will hold its next council meeting in Lausanne on March 3.

Reported by Mark Bisson

Homepage photo: Getty Images

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