WHIRL FROM IPANEMA Rio Olympics: Your guide to the opening ceremony with Brazil set to wow the world with a carnival twist on a 2,792-year-old sporting event
BRAZIL is set to wow the world with the Rio 2016 Olympics opening ceremony starting tonight.
It marks the end of a four-year Summer Games cycle that has counted down since the end of London 2012 four years ago.
So whip out the ice, make yourself a caipirinha and enjoy the fireworks – this one should be fun.
Set against the backdrop of the biggest protests in Brazil’s history, a president facing an impeachment trial, violence in Rio and the threat of zika – the party should be the biggest in the country’s history.
What time is it on?
FROM 11:40pm to 4am. We recommend coffee. Lots and lots of Brazilian coffee. Clare Balding also hosts a preview show from 8:30 to 10pm.
How can I watch it?
ON the Beeb of course, BBC1 to be precise and on their website where you can watch the sport of your choice. The whole Games is also on Radio 5Live if you want to listen on radio.
Where is it being held?
AT the Maracana Stadium – one of the cathedrals of world football, the ground that hosted the 2014 World Cup final and saw Pele score countless goals for Brazil and John Barnes net possibly England’s greatest ever goal. Unlike London, the athletics is being held in a different venue, the Joao Havelange Stadium.
Who will by flag bearer for Team GB?
HE’S feeling more British this week – it’s two-time Wimbledon winner Andy Murray.
How many countries are going to be there?
A MIGHTY 206 countries will march out in the Maracana, as well as a refugee team for athletes displaced by war in their native countries. Kosovo and South Sudan are sending teams for the first time.
How many people are involved?
A HECK of a lot – 35,000 to be precise. 12 samba schools have been recruited to show off their moves and 5,500 costumes have had to be made.
The director is Fernando Meirelles, who brought us the gritty child gang drama set in Rio, City of God. 11,000 athletes will parade through the opening ceremony – but we know only around 55 from Team GB will attend.
Who is the host?
BRAZIL’S famous model Gisele Bundchen will do the honours, while Lea T – a transsexual model – will also help out.
One country that will NOT be popular at the opening ceremony will be the Russian team – and who wants the poisoned chalice of holding the flag – that dubious privilege goes to volleyball ace Sergey Tetyukhin.
Instead of their intended 389 athletes travelling to Brazil, Russia now have 271 after the IOC ruled their athletics team was expelled from the Games, with the other sports left to make up their own minds.
The American team – who are set for a scrap at the top of the medals table with China – will have Michael Phelps holding the stars and stripes, while sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will hold Jamaica’s famous flag.
South Sudan and Kosovo will do the march for the first time, with and the South Pacific island of Tuvalu has only one athlete travelling in Etimoni Timuani.
This is the first Olympic Games ever to be held in South America, leaving Africa as the only continent never to have hosted a summer or winter Games.
The showpiece event is said to have taken five years to go from drawing board to being realised this evening – and organisers insist it has been done on a far tighter budget than Danny Boyle’s spectacular in London four years ago.
Rio will have two new sports at the Games, with rugby sevens and golf among the new sports, although the golf has been plagued by many athletes dropping out due to Zika and rugby sevens has seen Team GB send a relatively unknown men’s team, despite the country’s pedigree in producing top players.
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