RIO DE JANEIRO -- The Olympic torch relay has reached the end of its protest-disrupted journey to Rio de Janeiro.
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Rio Olympics Opening Ceremony
The relay that began with a ceremonial lighting in Ancient Olympia, Greece in April ended in Rio's Flamingo district on Friday afternoon.
The flame will be used to light the cauldron in the Maracana Stadium in Friday's night's opening ceremony.
The parade of nations has started in the opening ceremony, and as always Greece is leading off. Two-time Olympic sailing medalist Sofia Bekatorou is the flagbearer.
Brazil's long, proud musical history is on full display in this high-energy start to the opening ceremony for the Rio Games.
For Team USA, the spotlight is on Michael Phelps. After 18 gold medals and 22 medals overall in his storied Olympic career, the most celebrated Olympian in history is marching in his first opening ceremony and carrying the flag for
Team USA. More than 500 Americans are on the Olympic team.
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There was a late detour for the torch on Friday, with thousands of protesters forcing organizers to shift the relay away from part of the famed Copacabana beach before it headed to Sugar Loaf Mountain.
Many Brazilians are aghast at the $12 billion being spent on the Olympics in a country in the midst of its deepest recession since the 1930s. Brazil's employment is above 10 percent, and the local currency has tumbled in value against the dollar in the last year. Rio in particular suffers from major public health issues, including notoriously polluted waters.
Protesters got within about 1.5 miles of the Maracana stadium on Friday evening. As they tried to get closer, security pushed them back, setting off clashes. Heavily armed security appeared to fire tear gas to keep them from reaching the site of the opening ceremony.
Television footage showed two protesters setting fire to a yellow shirt carrying the logo "Rio 2016" and worn by staff working at the Olympics.
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Anti-Olympics protesters flood the streets of Rio
It was not clear how many protesters were detained, though footage showed at least one young man being placed into the back of a police van.
There have been consistent protests in the run-up to the Olympics, much of them aimed at the torch relay as it circled the country of 200 million.
In the past week, demonstrators have tried to douse the Olympic flame and attack it. Police have used robber bullets and stun grenades on the protest crowds.
Fernando Mereielles, director of the opening ceremonies, said the upcoming ceremonies will not shy away from Brazil's problems.
"We're not hiding," he told CBS News. "I mean, everyone knows that we have -- still -- very big social issue in Brazil from rich people and very poor people."
A recent survey by Datafolha shows 63 percent of Brazilians think hosting the games is doing more harm than good; only 16 percent are enthusiastic.
The spector of dopingHours before the opening ceremony, the Greek Olympic committee announced the first positive doping test of the Rio Games.
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The committee says an unnamed member of the Olympic team failed a doping test in July in Athens. The Greeks say the athlete has left the Olympic Village.
Dozens of athletes have failed doping tests at the last two Olympics, most caught in recent retests of stored samples. The IOC stores doping samples for 10 years so they can be retested when new methods become available, meaning drug cheats who escaped detection at the time can be caught years later.
Zika questions still lingerBrazil is at the epicenter of the
current Zika outbreak, with more than 100,000 cases of the mosquito-borne illness reported in that country. With more than a million spectators and 10,000 athletes expected for the games, concerns have been rife despite the World Health Organization (WHO) stating there is a "very low risk" of further international spread of Zika as a result of the games back in June.
Zika has already spread through most of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The virus poses a particular risk for pregnant women because it's been linked to a
severe birth defect called microcephaly, where babies are born with abnormally small heads and possible brain damage.
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Many athletes bailed on the Olympics out of concerns about Zika.
The Olympics of securityAfter years of planning, Brazil's complex Olympics security operation is now being put to the test.
Outside Maracana stadium, military vehicles, police and 35 checkpoints took over the streets on Friday, creating long lines and traffic jams.
Neither Brazil's Defense Ministry nor Rio de Janeiro police will say how many security personnel are on the ground to secure the Olympic opening ceremony. As many as 85,000 will be on site until the end of the games. That's twice as many as London four years ago.
More would have been on the ground if Rio wasn't forced to cut about $550 million from the Olympic budget amid a recession.
发表于 2016-8-6 09:54:36
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