Temer Visiting Rio for Games Update

(ATR) Brazil's Interim President Michel Temer is back to get a "personal assessment" on the Rio 2016 Games.

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(ATR) Michel Temer is back at the Rio 2016 Olympics, this time to give a "personal assessment" on the event.

Temer along with Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes will meet with Rio 2016 leadership and government officials to assess how the Olympics are going so far. Rio 2016 communications director Mario Andrada told Around the Rings that the government has a "positive assessment," of the Games, and wanted to check in personally.

Andrada could not confirm if Temer would be attending any Olympic sports after the meeting. Temer has largely stayed away from Rio de Janeiro during the Games. The acting president was booed after officially opening the Games on August 5, and is deeply unpopular in Brazil. In addition, in many venues citizens have shown demonstrations calling for the removal of Temer from office. Temer will not attend the Rio 2016 closing ceremony, with the president of the Brazilian congress performing the duties of receiving the Japanese delegation.

Temer did manage to attend Judo matches on August 6. At Judo, Temer watched Brazilian Rafaela Silva win gold in the women’s 57kg event.

The president’s arrival coincides with the lifting of an injunction blocking the influx of public funds to help buoy the Paralympic Games. Andrada told reporters in today’s daily briefing than an estimated $61.9 million will be contributed by the federal and city governments to ensure a high quality Games.

"There is not a budget shortfall [for the Paralympics]; we are discussing the level of service we need to have, and we are taking money because the sale of tickets and sponsorship has been below expectations," Andrada said to ATR. "The money will be used for services for clients and athletes. Mainly for the athletes in travel grants, food and everything we need to do to make sure the athletes are at their best. The focus now is to make sure we deliver great games in the Paralympics and also that we take this opportunity to transform issues like accessibility in the city of Rio."

Andrada added that the $61.9 figure was concluded after discussions with the International Paralympic Committee about what kind of services would be provided at the Games. He said that the budget for the Paralympics remains a "moving target," meaning that figure could change. In addition, Andrada said that no money specifically earmarked for the Paralympics had been spent on Olympic preparations.

"We managed the cash flow in an integrated way because the Paralympics enjoy a series of things that were done for the Olympics, so a lot of things are done in conjunction," Andrada said to reporters. "None of the problems we had during the Olympics were significant enough to produce a negative impact on the Paralympics. We had a fluid cash management because it’s a big company working for two games."

Rio 2016 says they are continuing to push Paralympic ticket sales and are in negotiations with various sponsors. As of today only 12 percent of all tickets for the Games have been sold.

"If we got some more ticket sales and some more sponsorship for the Paralympic Games we would be able to pull off the two games without public funding," Andrada said. "It was not possible, we are not disappointed. What we will do is focus on putting together excellent Paralympics and be wise and transparent and very sharp on the use of public funding."

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

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