Ban and other officials received the flame following speeches and a ceremony at the United Nations headquarters. He loved to swim as a teenager in Syria.
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The South Korean Olympic Committee explained that the Zika-proof outfits are filled with mosquito-repellent chemicals that will ensure the safety of their athletes and officials in the Olympics.
The Rio de Janeiro games will run from August 5-21.
Greek rowing World Champion Katerina Nicolaidou (C), holds a torch after lighting a cauldron with the Olympic Flame during the handover ceremony of the Olympic Flame to the delegation of the 2016 Rio Olympics, at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, Greece, April 27, 2016. “And they deserve a world that gives them more than assistance; they deserve a world that is at peace”, he said.
The IOC Executive Board will name the Refugee Olympic Team at its next meeting in June.
The boat’s crew included Swiss rower Barnabé Delarze, who recently qualified for Rio 2016, and René Libal, who represented the former Czechoslovakia at the Olympic Games Rome 1960.
Still, authorities hope that the Olympic flame relay will spark the so-far lackluster domestic interest in the Games.
The flame will make a short stopover in Switzerland, including at the Olympic museum in Lausanne, before arriving in Brasilia on Tuesday. After the event, the flame will be taken to the Brazilian Embassy in Athens, where it will stay for the night. Organizers say it will reach most of the vast country’s 200 million population, covering 20,000 kilometers (12,000 miles) by road and 16,000 kilometers (10,000 miles) by air to reach hundreds of cities and towns in a giant effort involving 12,000 torchbearers.
The twin meltdowns in politics and the economy have consumed Brazil, and the Olympics have all but disappeared from the front pages and TV news.
London was the first Olympics in which Qatar sent female athletes, the seventh Games at which the country had competed.
“You can’t really get angry at golfers for trying to say that they’re going to pull out of the Olympics – because it’s never been on our radar to ever win a gold medal”.
“In the past three years, Brazil has taken first place in 15 world events, which is part of our plan”, Marcus Vinicius Freire, executive director of sport for the Brazilian Olympic Committee, said.
Nuzman said the city is ready to “deliver history”.
“From the point of view of preparing the Games, the crisis has no effect at all”, Leyser said, declaring himself “at ease” with the remaining duties.
The U.N. ceremony came 98 days before the opening of the games. “We are ready to host the world”.
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Bach presented the United Nations with the Olympic Cup, the highest award given by the IOC to an organization or institution. The motion against her has now been passed to the senate, which could decide in favour of an investigation into the claims as early as next month.
