Here are a few things to be aware of.
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“On top of all that, Russian athletes are going through additional testing which is taking place at the Olympic village”.
For the first time in Olympic history, the games will feature a refugee team.
Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman, reporting from Rio de Janeiro, said police used pepper spray, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a small but energetic group of demonstrators on Tuesday and Wednesday who tried to impede the flame’s journey at several points in the city. Some take the Olympic rings or the ocean as their central motif, while others are more abstract.
The International Olympic Committee on Thursday approved 271 Russian athletes to participate out of the original contingent of 389, banning some 30 per cent of the participants blamed on “state-directed” doping and cover-up. The blue represents Europe, yellow is Asia, black for Africa, green for Oceania and red for the Americas.
NBC executives say that pre-Olympics media reports about the Zika virus, polluted water and political unrest in Brazil helped the network’s advertising sales.
Making matters worse is that Brazil has also been the victim of awful luck along the way.
At the last three Olympics, Phelps skipped the ceremony to rest up for his first event, the 400-meter individual medley, which was held the next day. There are concerns about safety amid a surge of murders in Rio and extremist attacks in Europe and the United States.
Most Canadians prefer the winter Olympics: When asked which Olympic Games they look forward to most, 43 per cent of respondents said winter, 32 per cent said “neither” and just 25 per cent chose summer.
Russia, who finished fourth on the London 2012 Olympic medals table and have topped the table seven times, will have their smallest team since 1912 at the Rio Games, which open on Friday.
The floor of the stadium will be a vast stage for projections, a substitute for more expensive structures in a nod to Brazil’s economic troubles.
Russian boxers, tennis players, judokas and shooters were among those given the last-minute approval by an IOC panel set up to review the eligibility of all Russian athletes previously cleared to compete by their global federations.
Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen, who made an appearance at the prize giving ceremony of the FIFA World Cup at the same venue two years ago, will play the part of the famous “girl from Ipanema”.
Olympic action is already under way.
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In what organizers have called a low-tech ceremony constrained by the dire economy, Brazil will showcase its natural treasures and the cultural riches created by one of the world’s most diverse nations.
