Rio de Janeiro 2016 to unveil 8 new Olympic venues during 25 test events

Rio de Janeiro 2016 to unveil 8 new Olympic venues during 25 test events over next 5 months

Source: Rio 2016

It may be more than six months until the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, but there will be plenty of Games-related sporting action in the city before then. Starting with basketball on 15 January, Rio de Janeiro will host 25 test events (20 Olympic, five Paralympic) in five months, following on from the 20 held last year and in 2014.

The events allow Games organizers to test the venues and fine tune operations, while providing athletes with the chance to experience the host city and competition sites, and in some cases, qualify for the Games themselves.

“We learned a lot in 2015 and we are going to make even more progress in 2016,” said Rodrigo Garcia, Rio 2016’s director of sports. “The big advantage of having an extensive calendar is that it enables us to implement alterations identified during the test events themselves. The objective is to have everything 100 per cent ready for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

New venues
After staging its first test event in December, when the Olympic Tennis Centre was inaugurated, Barra Olympic Park will host 17 of the remaining competitions. Carioca Arena 1 – one of seven new venues being constructed in Barra Olympic Park – will be the busiest, hosting the first three test events of the year and six in total, more than any other venue. After basketball it will stage powerlifting and wrestling, also in January, and then host taekwondo and wheelchair rugby in February and judo in March.

In total, eight new venues will open for business during this year’s test events: Carioca Arenas 1 and 3, Rio Olympic Velodrome, the Olympic Golf Course, Olympic Aquatics Stadium and the Future Arena (all in Barra), as well as Deodoro Stadium and Youth Arena in Deodoro Olympic Park, the second largest venue cluster.

BARRA OLYMPIC PARK: 95%
Carioca Arena 1: 96%
Carioca Arena 2: 97%
Carioca Arena 3: 98%
Rio Olympic Velodrome: 76%
Olympic Tennis Centre: 90%
Future Arena: 100%
Olympic Aquatics Stadium: 96%
International Broadcast Centre: 100%
Main Press Centre: 92%
Hotel: 88%
OLYMPIC GOLF COURSE: 100%
OLYMPIC & PARALYMPIC VILLAGE: 97%
DEODORO OLYMPIC PARK
Mountain Bike Centre:100%
Olympic BMX Centre: 100%
Whitewater Stadium: 100%
Olympic Hockey Centre: 99%
Youth Arena: 75%

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