www.maganews.com.br (texto com áudio)

The Olympic Games

Rio 2016: yes, we can!

For the first time ever a South American city has been chosen to host the Olympic Games. If well-planned and organized, the games could be very good not just for Rio, but for Brazil as a whole. But the challenges are enormous...

October 2nd has gone down in the history of Brazilian sport. It was on that date that Rio de Janeiro was chosen in Copenhagen, Denmark, to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Chicago, Tokyo, and Madrid were overlooked. Rio’s victory over Barack Obama’s Chicago echoed round the world. Brazil is already seen as an emerging powerhouse. In the next few years, Brazil’s image abroad could benefit if the country organizes the Olympics well (and the World Cup in 2014). The first challenge is to tackle violence, to invest in social projects, and to step up security in Rio. It will also be necessary to build more hotels. The hotel network in Rio currently has just over 20,000 rooms. In the next few years new hotels will be built to offer up to 50,000 rooms.

Heavy investment

Hosting an Olympics is like remodeling your house to welcome an important guest. Construction work will be carried out in the most varied of sectors. The heaviest investment will be in the transport system. The city’s two airports will be refurbished. The port will be revitalized, as will the historic center of the city. There will be investment in the environment, to clean up Rio. These are just some of the investments necessary to improve Rio’s infrastructure. In the sporting area, some of the installations that were used for the Pan-American Games in 2007 will be used. But that is not enough. New sporting installations will have to be built, as well as the Olympic Village. Total investment has been budgeted at US$14.4 billion. The government will cover most of this spending.

Áudio – Alline de Paula

Na versão impressa da revista Maganews você poderá conferir outras matérias relacionadas com as Olimpíadas no Rio. Matérias como:

1 - Rio 2016: what will Brazil get out of this?

The tourism sector in Rio and Brazil could receive an important boost. Holding the Olympics could also benefit other sectors

(com áudio de David Brien)

2 - Job creation

3 - The Olympics could boost Brazilian sport

Vocabulary

1 to be overlooked – ficar para trás / perder

2 emerging powerhouse – potência emergente

3 to tackle – cuidar de / parar / enfrentar

4 to step up – melhorar / dar um passo à frente (qualidade)

5 refurbished – reformado

6 to clean up – aqui = despoluir (reduzir a poluição)

7 budgeted – orçado (budget = orçamento)

8 spending - despesas

Foto – Marcello Casal Jr / Abr