olympian.br

Aerial view of the Maracana Stadium from 3 days ago:

Well, that's nothing new. Everybody and their mothers know Rio has a lot of work to do.

Like London had a hard act to follow after Beijing. The true is that every Olympic is different. China laid its own mark when they hosted, London laid its own mark now and Rio will do the same in 2016. Rio will have its ups and downs but in the end, I'm sure it's gonna be fun and enjoyable party. I don't think the brazilian organizers have to worry about London too much, they have to make their own Olympics now and hopefully people in the world will enjoy it, if not, I'm sure brazilians will love the experience either way. This is gonna be a south american Olympics, like it or not.

No rock'n'rol during the ceremonies in Rio, please! I had enough of it last night lol Just samba and bossa nova! By the way, I hope the female performers in the ceremonies won't be too covered, like in the handover. I mean, c'mon, give me some half-naked people! This is Rio for god's sake, I want to see beauty everywhere! lol

Love it! I want a full samba party in the OC and CC, not light samba like the handover ceremony, I want true samba! Arlindo Cruz, Jorge Aragão, Alcione, Beth Carvalho, Zeca Pagodinho, Mangueira dancers and drummers. I want it ALL! lol

They could use corcovado while lightining the caldron (maybe the flame will came from there), but not exactly put the caldron up there. I don't know, either way, the discussion about the 2016 caldron shpuld be even more interesting than the one we had about london's.

I don't think so. I just saw the infield on brazilian tv. It's covered with an stylized union flag (or something like that). The weather looks cloudy, maybe we'll have light rain during the ceremony.

He's probably talking about brazilian's forests. I have a feeling the CC will surpasse the OC by far!

And here we go again... :lol:

I believe if there's one thing people should not to be worried about is the Maracana Stadium. It's schedule to receive the world cup final in 2014, that's 2 years before the opening ceremonies. It was also reported last week the stadium will be closed from april to august 2016 for preparations for the opening ceremony, that should be enough time to make any necessary arrangements for the OC. About the lack of an athletic track in the stadium and worries about lack of space for the atletes, I think we should take a look at how it was done in 2007 during the Panam OC. If they did it back then, there's no reason they won't do it again in 2016.

Talking about the olympic flag, here's an epic entrance in Barcelona:

They will probably be standing in the center of the field, like always.

It looks like it's gonna be dance-heavy. I'm glad they're going to showcase the national culture instead of focusing just on Rio and samba. Should be fun.

Volleyball will be played in Maracananzinho (the indoor stadium close to Maracana). Beach volleyball will be played in Copacabana.

Today was announced that Maracana will be closed from april to august 2016 for the next opening ceremony, That means the organizers will have four months to preparate the stadium (and possibly the caldron) for the ceremony on august 5th. Sounds good.

What I understand from this report (http://aroundtherings.com/articles/view.aspx?id=38411) is that the ceremonial consortium is formed by the italian company that produced Torino 2006 and a brazilian production team, the ones responsible for Rio's world famous NYE party. I'm sure brazilians will have a major role in the creative process. Ric Birch is part of the consortium from what I read, although I did not understand exactly what his job will be.

So.......the OC in 2016 should be fun! Is it confirmed the same guy who produced the Sidney ceromony is producing Rio's?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2183829/After-spectacular-opening-mini-London-Eye-bring-curtain-down.html

It looks like the flags are burning, not cool at all in my opinion.

This will probably be the main topic in this forum from now to 2016, but the true is that Rio doesn't need to construct another athletic stadium. Joao Havelange stadium already serves its purpose (for athletics competition, not for ceremonies), building another stadium just to acomodate the olympic tradition is NOT part of Rio's plans. Maracana stadium is being renovated for the 2014 world cup and FIFA rules wouldn't allow an athletic track to be part of the new stadium. So, since the ceromonies' stadium needs to be a big venue, they are going with Maracana. Maybe Rio will have two flames, one for the ceremony and another for the Olympic Park. By the way, the athletic stadium in Rio will not be located in the Olympic park, another first I guess. Anyway, I digress. Back to London, I'm glad that we will finally see the flame from now on.

South Africa is RSA so it's gonna be ""Republica da Africa do Sul".

I gotta say: I LOVE the gymsnastic arena look. The jarring pink color is really vibrant and different. I hope Rio can do something like that in 2016.

The blue cloth bit is new to me, sounds good!

There's no way of knowing if the caldron it's in the middle of the stadium or in the tor-end, at least not from the video we have. It's much more logical though for it to be in the tor-end and then be suspended to the roof plataform.