Olympic Football Qualifying Complete -- Rio Roundup

(ATR) Colombia secured the final Olympic men’s football qualification spot on March 29.

The final spot was awarded from a two-legged playoff between Colombia and the United States. Both teams qualified for the playoffs after missing out on direct qualification through their continental confederations.

Colombia won the playoff 3-2 on aggregate, qualifying them for their first Olympic Games since 1992 in Barcelona. The United States now will miss their second straight Olympic Games for men’s football and third Olympics of the past four.

The final field for the men’s Olympic tournament is set with Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Fiji, Germany, Honduras, Iraq, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of South Africa, and Sweden.

Qualifying for the women's tournament wrapped up on March 9. Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, the United States and Zimbabwe qualified for the women's tournament.

Fiji, on the men's side, and Zimbabwe, on the women's side, will be making their Olympic debuts in football.

FIFA will conduct the draw for both the men’s and women’s football tournaments on April 15 at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

Australian Uniform Reveal

Aussie athletes will walk into the 2016 Olympics wearing a green blazer with white shorts or skirts.

The Australian Olympic team unveiled their opening ceremony uniform at a ceremony on Bondi Beach on March 30. The uniform was designed by Sportscraft, and is the seventh opening ceremony uniform designed by the company.

The green blazer will feature the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) logo and the names of each Australian athlete participating in the games in the jacket’s lining.

"The Olympic Games is the pinnacle for many athletes’ careers and taking athlete input into consideration is an important element of the development of the uniform," Alex Croak, a two time Olympian from Australia and member of the AOC uniform committee, said in a statement.

"This is to ensure comfort and practicality is married with the fashion and design in an outfit that can enhance the performance of an athlete."

NBC Achieves Sales Goal Early

Broadcaster NBC says they are on pace to set a new record for Olympic advertising sales.

On March 29 the broadcaster said in a statement they surpassed over $1 billion in advertising sales for the 2016 Games. NBC says they reached the same milestone two days before the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony.

"Advertisers know that integrating their brands in front of Olympic viewers is good for their businesses," Seth Winter, executive vice-president of advertising sales for NBC Sports, said in a statement.

"We continue to expect to set the Olympic record for national ad sales. The Olympics’ ability to dominate prime time for 17 consecutive nights is unmatched. If brands want to reach viewers and their customers in the third quarter, they have to be in the Olympics."

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

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