Sports

In Rio de Janeiro, and throughout the country, with more popular sport is football. There are four major football teams in the city: Flamengo, Vasco da Gama, Fluminense and Botafogo. Other sports that stand out as having important equipment located in Rio de Janeiro are judo, basketball, swimming and volleyball. As in all of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro sports fans have more collective than individual.

Rio de Janeiro hosted the 2007 Pan American Games.

[edit] Head World Cup 2014

See also: World Cup 2014.

Rio de Janeiro is one of the 12 venues of the 2014 World Cup. The final will be played at the Estádio Mário Filho Jornalista, better known as Maracanã, 103 that after the renovations will accommodate almost 80,000 personas.

The International Broadcast Centre for the 2014 World Cup will be located in Rio de Janeiro, at the headquarters of Riocentro. The preliminary draw was held at the Marina da Glória, near the center of Rio, on 30 July 2011.

Home of the 2016 Olympic Games

See also: Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016.

The city of Rio de Janeiro was appointed on October 2, 2009, at 18:50 EST, during the course of the 121st session of the IOC Executive Board held in Copenhagen (Denmark), to host Olympics 2016. In the first round was eliminated Chicago in Tokyo and in the second round of the election last beat Madrid by 66-32 votos.106

Rio de Janeiro and tried to organize the Olympic Games in 2004 and 2012, but ultimately the venues chosen were Athens and London respectively.

With this designation to organize the 2016 Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro became the first South American city to get this event, as other cities tried unsuccessfully in the past to host before, like Buenos Aires and São Paulo.

The candidacy of Rio de Janeiro proposed holding almost all sporting events within the urban area, concentrating on areas of Maracana, Barra da Tijuca, Copacabana and Deodoro. The only exception will be the football events will be distributed in São Paulo, Salvador, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia. All these cities are also venues for the World Cup 2014.