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2016 RIO DE JANEIRO SUMMER GAMES:

What you need to know

A historic moment: 2016 Summer Games will be the first time that a South American country has been selected to host the games.

NORTH AMERICA

CANADA 1976, 1988, 2010M
MEXICO 1968
UNITED STATES 1904, 1932, 1960,
1980, 1984, 1996, 2002

SOUTH AMERICA

BRAZIL 2016

ASIA

CHINA 2008
JAPAN 1940, 1964, 1972, 1998
SOUTH KOREA 1988

OCEANIA

AUSTRALIA 1956, 2000

EUROPE

AUSTRIA 1964, 1976
BELGIUM 1920
FINLAND 1940, 1952
FRANCE 1900, 1924, 1968, 1992
GERMANY 1916, 1936, 1940, 1972
GREECE 1896, 2004
ITALY 1944, 1956, 1960, 2006
NETHERLANDS 1928
NORWAY 1952, 1994
RUSSIA 2014
SOVIET UNION (RUSSIA) 1980
SPAIN 1992
SWEDEN 1912, 1956
SWITZERLAND 1928, 1948
UNITED KINGDOM 1908, 1948, 2012
YUGOSLAVIA 1984

Some Quick Facts:

206 countries are expected to send athletes to the 2016 Olympic Games

350K-500K foreign visitors are expected to visit Brazil for the 2016 Olympic Games

30+ venues will host the games in Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, São Paulo, Salvador, Belo Horizonte and Manaus

10,000+ athletes will be participating in the 2016 Olympic Games

306 competitive events will be held during the 2016 Olympic Games

A fleet of 21 jumbo jets would be required to fly 10,000 athletes out to Rio. That's a total space the size of 21 football pitches.

About 140,000 people are needed to host the Games in August. Of those, 90,000 will be employees with a further 50,000 being volunteers.

Around 85,000 soldiers and policemen will be deployed — the largest security force assembled at any event in Brazil's history and twice as large as the security presence for London 2012.

Hi!

Rio's taxi drivers, or "taxistas," are being given the chance to sign up for free online English lessons provided by the Rio 2016 Organising Committee. Drivers are often the first point of contact for fans, and those who take the four-month course will most likely be swapping "oi!" for "hi!"

Visa Waiver

Brazil waives visa requirements for U.S., Canadian, Australian and  between June 1 and September 18.

^191.7%

- Rio hotel room prices have jumped from an average of £67 ($97) to £196 ($283.80) a night (191.7% increase), with only 14% of official hotel rooms left available (as of April 27, 2016).

3.6B

- The International Olympic Committee expects approximately 3.6 billion global viewers of this year's games, of whom more than three billion will be using additional 'second-screen' devices while watching the games -- that's the entire population of China, India and United States combined.

7.6M

- In total, about 7.5 million tickets for the Rio games will be on sale. So far, 60% have been sold (as of April 2016). There have been long-held concerns over slow ticket sales for Rio. An unstable political environment, lagging economy and worries over the Zika virus are likely to contribute to lower ticket sales. But organisers point out that historically Brazilians tend to leave ticket purchases until the last minute.

Sources

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