Rio Olympics open doors at Athletes Village, Russian blanket ban dismissed
Sports
Rio Olympics open doors at Athletes Village, Russian blanket ban dismissed
Ready or not, the Rio Olympics are opening their doors. The Games begin in just over two weeks, but the Athletes Village opens officially on Sunday, meaning 10,500 athletes and another 7,000 staff members will start trickling into the luxurious layout, with the pace picking up daily until the Aug. 5 opening ceremony at the Maracana Stadium. Everything about the village is massive, though fairly standard for recent Summer Olympics. Some delegations had already arrived on Saturday, easy to spot with banners or flags hanging off the sides of buildings.
The hardest part is knowing how much to prepare.
Flavia Albuquerque, who oversees Rio’s food and beverage service
The International Olympic Committee will not impose a blanket ban on Russia for next month’s Olympics over the nation’s doping record but will leave decisions on individual athletes’ participation to the relevant sports federations. The IOC’s announcement follows the World Anti-Doping Agency’s call for a Rio ban in response to the independent McLaren report that found evidence of widespread state-sponsored doping by Russian athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
