INTERVIEW
“The city hadn’t witnessed urban re-
newal for 75 years, so we highlighted the proposed transformation of the city’s port area, including the terminals and the three neighbourhoods within, as well as the de- velopment of new transport links to the new sports facilities. With this objective in mind we actually developed some sport- ing facilities to Olympic standard when we won the Pan American Games,” he says. After years of under-investment, Gryner
says a key advantage of securing these major sporting events has been to allow Brazil a platform on which to accelerate the development of its sporting infra- structure, its marketing programmes – to help support sport – and an elite perfor- mance programme for budding athletes. In fact, Gryner says the country is
already acting upon its legacy commit- ments from the Pan American Games, with the setting up of an annual School Games Tournament, which he says now involves millions of children across the country. He says the challenge now is to work towards ensuring a minimum stan- dard of regular, compulsory PE lessons in all the country’s schools through the Bra- zilian Ministry of Education.
Transforming the city Rio’s 2016 competition venues will be clustered in four zones – Barra, Copaca- bana, Deodoro and Maracanã. Of the 34 competition venues, of which 18 are already operational, eight will undergo
Left: Stadium built for 2007 Pan American Games. Above and right: Envisaged trans- formation of the city’s port area. Below left: Olympic sport on Baha beach
extended development, seven will be temporary structures and nine will be constructed as permanent legacy venues. They will be connected to a high-
performance transport system that will enable almost half of the athletes to reach their venues in less than 10 minutes and the rest in under 25 minutes. Regarding the facility design, Gryner
says that since hosting the South Ameri- can Games in 2002, Brazil has been on a “journey of education” in the design and development of effective, sustainable, sports facilities. “For example, a Brazilian architect helped design sports facilities for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic facilities, another worked in Delhi for the 2010 Commonwealth Games and there’s one working in London towards 2012. “Of course this collaboration works
both ways. Australian architects John Baker Associates, direct from the Sydney Olympics, worked on facilities for the Pan American Games.” Another major legacy that came out of
the Pan American Games was the trans- formation of the whole security system in Rio, which has now been adapted into a new way of policing throughout the coun- try. “This included restructuring policing methods, the use of forensic evidence and
the dismissal of ‘bad’ cops. The result of which has seen crime rates drop substan- tially, in the past four years, and the area become much safer,” Gryner says.
Spreading the impact Already a major hub for sports provi- sion in South America, particularly in the popular sports of football, volleyball, swimming, judo and sailing, Gryner says that elite athletes from the surrounding area already train in Brazil. So the new Olympic facilities and corresponding per- formance programmes will enhance elite development throughout the region. “The foreign office has instigated a
sport scholarship programme to fund talented athletes from South Ameri- ca and Africa to train in Brazil, and we also have coaching links where Brazilan coaches mentor sports coaches in other countries,” he says. Regarding service providers for the
Games, Gryner says that Brazil and other South American countries are members of a common market in the region and companies within this partnership are en- couraged to bid to service the Games. “The Games will bring social, eco-
nomic and sporting benefit to Brazil and open up many opportunities for our South American neighbours, but the big- gest benefactors will be our children,” he says. “Education is now high on the agenda and improving the quality of education for everyone – particularly the underprivileged. And one way to attract the youth into school is through sport.”
20 Read Sports Management online
sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital Issue 2 2011 © cybertrek 2011
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