Less than a month after Rio de Janeiro was chosen to host the 2016 Olympics, International Olympic Committee (IOC) representatives were meeting with Brazilian authorities to draw up a plan of action to prepare the Games. The meeting was taking place Friday and Saturday at the traditional Copacabana Palace hotel in Rio.
Before getting started, those in attendance watched a video message from IOC president Jacques Rogge, who congratulated Brazilians for having been chosen as Olympic hosts and reminded them of future challenges.
“That conquest comes with a great responsibility. The IOC has shown great confidence in Rio de Janeiro and in its vision for the Games. We will be in Rio many times and we will work very closely with the organizing committee, because history shows that only joint effort generates great achievements,” he said.
Gilbert Felli, the IOC’s director of the Olympic Games, said the gathering will seek to define work for the coming seven years and to build closer ties with the organizing committee. The common goal is to hold exceptional Games in 2016, he said.
Brazil was represented in the meetings by Sports Minister Orlando Silva, Rio de Janeiro Governor Sergio Cabral and Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes, as well as the head of the Rio 2016 host committee Carlos Arthur Nuzman.
Nuzman said that the IOC made “a historic decision” by granting Rio the first Olympics ever held in South America.
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