I suppose it should have been obvious to the world that a city that has 6 million visitors pass through it per year and 2/3rds of those visitors in the weeks of Carnaval and New Year's was adequately prepared to accommodate an Olympics. In spite of dooms-day predictions, the Rio2016 Olympic Games are actually a ton of fun, a super positive party atmosphere and an amazing celebration of diversity.
The Opening ceremony, in spit of being a fraction of the costs of London 2012 and Beijing 2008, was a smash hit. The crowd participated in many of the sound effects such as making waves or creating the forest noises.
Impressions of the First Few Days:
We did Swimming, Judo, Rugby, Slalom Canoe, Sevens Rugby, Beach Volley ball and team Archery.
Tips:
Almost EVERYTHING is available. If you just show up to events you can buy tickets on the spot. I'm not sure if there has ever been so much availability for tickets at an Olympics. However, buy the worst seats in the house and move up. One nice thing about these events are the Cariocas aren't really worried about seating arrangements. You can move around most stadiums as you wish after the first part of an event.
For the medal round team archery we got some of the best seats in the house.
Use the metro. The city has limited most of the public transit routes to the games for people with tickets so the general population isn't using the metro very much. Its well patrolled and safe.
Bring food to the games. Unfortunately, Brazil did not take this opportunity to showcase to the world its amazing local flavours. The food is all processed and terrible. The line ups for this awful food are quite long (especially in the heat of the day).
Sevens Rugby
For me, one of the amazing stories to come out of the first week was Figi's first ever Olympic (Gold) medal. In the elimination rounds they played a chippy and tough game against Japan but came through, showing they were here to win. Until then most people expected a tri-nations sweep of the medals.
Here is a nice open field tackle. It was a hard hitting affair.
A special moment that I was able to snap after the game. This is what separates Rugby from many other contact sports. You can go to war with the other side on the field, but at the end of the day there is a camaraderie and sportsmanship that runs through all rugby players. Everyone goes out after for beers together and celebrates.
In the finals, Great Briton came for a game and Fiji came for war! They completely ran away with the game to give Fiji its first ever medal. Gold too! It was an amazing event to watch and the local crowd got behind Fiji the whole way.
I really hope the IOC keeps Rugby in the Olympics. It was a great fan atmosphere, a fun team sport for spectators with a great mix of finesse and power and in the end an amazing story and historic moment for Fijians around the world.
Thanks for reading! Let me know if there are specific things that you guys would like to see in a future iteration of this post. Note: all pictures taken by me on a Canon 70D and a 18-135mm lens.
Cheers,
- Ryan