Rio Olympic Games 2016 Inauguration Jogos Olímpicos Rio 2016 Inauguração

The 2016 Olympic Games officially start in Rio on Friday with
the opening ceremony at the Maracana Stadium.Athletes from 206
nations and a refugee team are in Brazil to compete in 28 sports and be watched
by a global audience of billions.The build-up has been
dominated by a Russian doping scandal, the Zika virus and issues with the
city's security, infrastructure and venues.But it is time for the
sporting action to take centre stage.These are the Games of
the 31st Olympiad but are the 28th to be held as those in 1916, 1940 and 1944
did not take place because of war.When does it start?The Games - held in
South America for the first time - officially take place between 5 and 21
August, but they have actually already started.The opening ceremony
is at midnight BST on Friday night but the action kicked off two days ago with
the women's football.Defending Olympic
men's tennis champion Andy Murray will be Great Britain's flag bearer inside
Rio's Maracana stadium on Friday.An estimated three
billion people will watch the ceremony, which has taken five years to produce and
includes 300 dancers, 5,000 volunteers and 12,000 costumes.Brazilian
supermodel Gisele Bundchen and Briton Dame Judi Dench are confirmed to have
roles in the production before the 207 competing teams take part in the Parade
of Nations.You
can watch the opening ceremony on BBC One and online,
with further coverage on BBC Radio 5 live, from 23:40 BST on Friday.There will be 10,500
athletes from a record 207 teams competing in Rio, including the Refugee
Olympic Team, while it will be the first time Kosovo and South Sudan have taken
part in the Games.The Refugee Olympic Team will compete under the Olympic flag and has 10 members - five
from South Sudan, two from Syria, two from DR Congo and one from Ethiopia.
With 554 athletes, the
United States has the largest Olympic team, but 100m runner Etimoni Timuani,
who is the only athlete from the South Pacific nation of Tuvalu.The Rio Games will be
the first to feature Olympians born since the year 2000 - and the youngest is
13-year-old Nepalese swimmer Gaurika Singh.What about Russia?The build-up to Rio has
been overshadowed by events in Russia, after the World Anti-Doping Agency
(Wada) report into state-sponsored doping in the country.It seemed at one stage
that no Russian athletes would be at the Games after Wada recommended a blanket
ban.But the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) said individual sporting federations must rule on
whether Russians can compete.Their decisions were then
ratified by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) before a three-person IOC
panel made the final decision.On Thursday, the IOC cleared 271 Russian athletes from the country's original entry list of 389, though its track
and field athletes have been barred by the sport's governing body.
Any other problems?Plenty.Brazil is in a deep
recession and political crisis, while protests marred the arrival of the
Olympic torch in Rio on Wednesday.A New Zealand jiu-jitsu
athlete claims he was kidnapped in Rio, while Chinese state media criticised security after
women fencers were robbed and shooting team members found "unauthorised
payments" on their credit cards.
Brazil has drafted in
85,000 security personnel from 55 countries who will be stationed at the sport
venues, Olympic Village, airports and main roads - almost twice as many as were
at the 2012 London Olympics. There is also 200km of security fencing being
used.More than 500,000
tourists are expected to come to the Games and organisers say more than one
million of the 7.5 million tickets remain unsold.There have also been
issues with the Olympic Village and the sailing venue.Australia initially refused
to move into the village, in
the Barra da Tijuca neighbourhood, citing electrical problems, gas and water
leaks among other issues in their building.When they did eventually
move in, the team were evacuated for a small fire and returned to their rooms
to find essential equipment had been stolen.At the sailing venue in
Guanabara Bay, a taskforce removed 25.4 tonnes of floating rubbish during last
year's Olympic test event.
This is not the first
time a host city has been criticised for its preparations, but the IOC says Rio
is now "ready to welcome the world".
And then there is Zika
Brazil is at the centre
of an outbreak of Zika
virus, that is
spread by mosquitoes and can lead to birth defects.
It is so serious the
World Health Organisation has recommended pregnant women avoid travelling to
the Games - but mosquitoes are rare in August and in June it recommended the
Games not be moved or cancelled.
That advice has not
stopped a number of the world's top golfers and tennis players withdrawing,
citing Zika fears.
But what about the actual sport?
Competitions will
take place across 32 venues in Rio, with football matches also scheduled for
the cities of Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Manaus, Salvador and Sao Paulo.
There are 306
events in 28 Olympic sports but none are bigger than the 100m sprint final and
the world's fastest man Usain Bolt.
The Jamaican is
aiming for an unprecedented triple triple, as he tries to win the 100m, 200m
and 4x100m relay titles for the third time - and his battle with American
sprinter Justin Gatlin is likely to be a highlight of the Games.
USA swimmer Michael
Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, will be looking to add to his
18 gold medals.
American tennis
player Serena Williams could win her fifth Olympic medal, while Team USA's
star-studded basketball team will be aiming for their third consecutive gold.
Brazil's Barcelona
striker Neymar will once again carry the hopes of the home nation as they go
for gold in the men's football.
Among those who
miss out are top tennis players Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka, NBA stars
Stephen Curry and LeBron James and a number of golfers.
Anything new?
Sonny
Bill Williams is one of the stars of the New Zealand rugby sevens team
Rio marks the
return of golf and rugby to the Olympics.
Golf is returning
after a 112-year absence but without more than 20 of its top players.
The top four male
golfers Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson have all
withdrawn because of Zika fears.
In fact, only four
of the top 10 will be in Rio - and McIlroy said he probably will not even watch
television coverage of golf at the Games, preferring "track and field,
swimming, diving, the stuff that matters".
Rugby sevens will
be making its debut at the Olympics, although rugby union featured regularly at
the Games until 1924.
 

The 2016 Olympic Games officially start in Rio on Friday with the opening ceremony at the Maracana Stadium