How can you watch all of the action from the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro?
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The Rio Games get into full swing Saturday just hours after Friday night’s opening ceremony.
Rio hoped to put naysayers to rest after months of upheaval leading up to the Olympics by focusing on the positives of the South American nation of Brazil. The U.S. women’s soccer team meets France at 4 p.m. ET on NBCSN followed by the U.S. men’s basketball team kicking off its Olympic schedule vs.
Overall, the atmosphere in the Maracana was celebratory, as a succession of actors, dancers and musicians raced through routines meant to showcase Brazil’s culture, diversity and history, even finding time for a brief lecture on environmental issues.
Bundchen’s long sashay was an early highlight, as was a clever section that featured a biplane appearing to fly out of the stadium and circle the city’s signature “Christ the Redeemer” statue.
The ceremony’s creative director Fernando Meirelles had a smaller budget than his predecessors, including the mastermind of London 2012’s memorable show Danny Boyle, but he promised “the coolest party”.
Canada’s team of 314 athletes, 186 women and 128 men, is gunning for a top-12 finish in the medal standings in Rio. Their flag bearer, Rose Nathike Lokonyen, fled war in South Sudan and ran her first race in a refugee camp in northern Kenya.
The British squad was given a warm reception with Scotland’s Andy Murray enjoying his flag-waving duties.
The opening ceremony, which lasted four hours and cost twice less when it was planned four years ago, drew a crowd of close to 70,000, a size than can only be seen in a football match that had Brazilian pride at stake.
As it happened, their arrival, sandwiched between Rwanda and the Solomon Islands, was relatively low key, with some jeers that were quickly drowned out by the pockets of Russian support in the crowd.
A fan poses for a photo during women’s singles 1st round match between Venus Williams of the US and Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Tennis events at the Olympic Tennis Centre in the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 06 August 2016.
“I really want to be an optimist, and tell you that all this is great for Brazil”, said 34-year-old Robinson Munes as he got his hair trimmed for the weekend. “The best place in the world is here and now”, said organizing committee chief Carlos Nuzman, to rapturous applause.
“We need help, and it seems freakish to beg when the city I live in is hosting the Olympics”, he said.
Rio’s Olympics are costing almost $12 billion but critics argue even legacy projects like a new metro line, bus highways and massive real estate developments have done little to improve the lives of the city’s marginalized.
Loud cheering erupted when two of the last teams entered the stadium: the first Refugee team in Olympic history and finally a samba-dancing Brazil contingent.
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Brazilian marathon runner Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima lit the Olympic cauldron Reuters It was complemented by a shining display representing a larger flame Reuters Fireworks over the Maracana stadium.
