A total of 141 people will carry the Olympic torch a distance of 108 kilometers through Brasilia on a route that will include the Juscelino Kubitschek bridge, Lake Paranoa, the Mane Garrincha Stadium, the Claudio Coutinho water-sports complex and the National Park.
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Twelve-year-old Hanan Khaled Daggah carries the Olympic torch through Brasilia on Tuesday, May 3, 2016.
He was chosen to highlight the importance of education for Brazil’s development.
The Olympic flame as the symbol of the Games arrived in Brazil Tuesday.
President Dilma Rousseff is to receive the lantern at the Planalto presidential palace, igniting the torch to begin its journey around the country.
“Brazil is now the country of the Games”, she said.
Torch bearer Gerard Moss, a Swiss-Brazilian aviator and environmentalist, said the Games could help to calm political tempers.
Already fluent in Portuguese, Hanan attends school in São Paulo where she quickly made Brazilian friends. The flame will illuminate a hospitable and responsible country.. It will visit more than 300 towns and cities, giving about 90 percent of Brazilians the opportunity to join in and witness the historic tour.
Ticket sales have lagged compared to previous Games, with just 62 percent sold so far, according to the Rio 2016 organising committee. First came the deep recession and a Zika virus outbreak that has caused serious birth defects.
But the ceremony was bitter sweet for Rousseff, who could be suspended by the Senate next week at the opening of an impeachment trial. “We are going through a very hard period, truly critical in the country’s history and in the history of democracy”, Rousseff said in the capital Brasilia. Some carried a banner that read “SOS coup in Brazil!” Rousseff faces a possible impeachment trial on charges that she broke the law by concealing budget shortfalls. Al-Hussein, who was surrounded by refugee children as he carried the torch, used his moment in the spotlight to publicly wish for an end to all wars and express his hope that everyone can peacefully return to their homes.
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In a brief speech at the torch-lighting ceremony, Rousseff said the relay would put Brazil’s beauty on display, but she also laced her comments with references to her fight for political survival.
