'Historic' Rio Tickets Released

(ATR) Tickets for the 2016 Olympics draw on the look of the Games and the sports they will showcase.

Rio 2016 released the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic tickets on May 20. The tickets feature each of the 64 Olympic and Paralympic sport pictograms over a backdrop inspired by the look of the Games. Opening and Closing Ceremony tickets will feature the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic logos.

When presenting the tickets, Rio 2016 President Carlos Nuzman remarked that these are the tickets for "the first Games in South America, so we wanted to do something differently."

"Rio 2016 was the first organizing committee to design pictograms for all of the Olympic and Paralympic sports," Beth Lula, Rio 2016 brand director, told Around the Rings.

"They represent the moment of the best performance of the athlete, so the spectators can feel they have something that represents a passport for this historic, unique celebration."

Starting today the first of the four million tickets sold worldwide will begin to be delivered.

Rio 2016 ticketing director Donovan Ferreti told ATR that this represents 67 percent of total tickets available worldwide. Only 6 million tickets have been put on sale as Rio 2016 continues to determine the final capacity for many temporary venues. Ferreti could not comment on how many of the four million tickets were sold domestically instead of internationally.

"The biggest remaining tickets are for the preliminaries," Ferreti said. "Now that we know the pairings, we are selling the tickets very fast."

Originally, Rio 2016 said that 7.6 million Olympic tickets will be sold, but Ferreti could not comment on what the final number would be.

Every Thursday Rio 2016 continues to put new tickets on their website for Brazilians to purchase. Organizers remain confident they will sell out all of the remaining tickets in the final 78 days until the Olympic Games.

Only 24 percent of Paralympic Games tickets have been sold so far. Rio 2016 communications director Mario Andrada said to ATR that it has been a challenge to sell Paralympic tickets while Olympic tickets remain unsold. Andrada said the goal of the organizing committee is to sell over 40 percent of Paralympic tickets before the Olympics open, after which he expected sales to pick up during and after the Olympics.

Watch a video showcasing the Olympic tickets below:

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

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