Just not a very memorable one.
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The Olympic torch has arrived in Rio de Janeiro by boat after a three-month tour of Brazilian cities.
Sweden’s women claimed the first victory of the Olympic football tournament 1-0 over South Africa as Rio 2016 got off to an underwhelming start on Wednesday. It was settled by veteran defender Nilla Fischer scoring in the 75th minute in her third Olympics.
The men’s soccer competition starts with eight games Thursday, with Brazil playing South Africa in the capital Brasilia.
The Rio Organizing Committee said 1.3 million tickets remained unsold on Wednesday, though almost half of those tickets are for soccer matches held in other cities.
When asked how much of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro they intend to watch, a majority of Americans (51 percent) said “not much” or “none at all”.
A protest involving 50 people stopped the relay on Tuesday in Sao Goncalo, one of the poorest cities of greater Rio, in a sign of the strife that threatens to disrupt movement around the games venues.
The Olympic torch approached the end of its nationwide relay around Brazil on Thursday, the day after police clashed with demonstrators and with new political protests planned for the opening ceremony.
After picking up the torch at a local naval academy, a grinning Paes took it on its first laps through the streets of downtown Rio, known locally as ‘the marvellous city.’ A few protesters cropped up in the mostly celebratory crowd, which cheered to the pulse of drums and samba music.
“The crisis the country is in is maybe the worst crisis in the history of Brazil”.
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The flame landed on terra firma at 9:15 a.m. (12:15 GMT) while just kilometers away 450 heavily armed police battled drug traffickers to carry out dozens of arrest orders in the Alemao slum, an area near the global airport and close to the main road to Olympic venues. It began with a ceremonial lighting in Ancient Olympia, Greece, on April 21, and will make its way to Maracana Stadium for the opening ceremony on Friday. Havelange stepped down as honorary president of Federation Internationale de Football Association in 2013 to avoid possible suspension for taking kickbacks.
