Rio Prepares for Final Olympic Push

(ATR) With one year to go to the Olympic Games it is all hands on deck for Rio 2016.

Rio 2016 president Carlos Nuzman, Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes, and Brazil President Dilma Rousseff will kick off celebrations on Aug. 5 at the Olympic Park to mark the occasion. The three leaders will hold a press conference followed by an official countdown ceremony to mark the official one year mark ahead of the Games.

To prepare for the Games, Rio 2016 has already begun the test event program, but construction work still remains on a majority of venues.

According to Rio 2016, the Olympic Park is 86 percent complete, with the Deodoro Sports Complex only at 69 percent completion. Both areas will need round-the-clock work to ensure that deadlines and responsibilities met.

The Rio de Janeiro government will also release the latest update to the Olympic Responsibility Matrix, which will provide a clearer picture of where all Olympic projects outside of the subway line lay. The matrix will provide updated deadlines for project as well as if they are on budget.

IOC officials will stay in the city after celebrations, for a Coordination Commission meeting on Aug. 10-12 at Rio 2016 headquarters.

Organizers will certainly face questions surrounding the state of the waterways used in Olympic venues, given recent media reports.

In Kuala Lumpur, the IOC said it will look into the pollution in Rio, after the AP reported dangerous levels of viruses in all Olympic waterways. Previously, Rio 2016 and IOC officials said that testing for bacteria met World Health Organization standards, while many federations and National Olympic Committees conducted independent tests of their own.

After the one year to go ceremonies, Rio 2016 will immediately return to the test event program with events in rowing and equestrian on Aug. 6-8. The events will test the field of play, security, as well as media operations.

Celebrations will wrap up on Aug. 8-9 with the Olympic cultural marathon, a two-day celebration of arts and culture in the city. Many of the events featured for Rio de Janeiro citizens will be free.

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

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