Rio City Hall discloses today one of the most emblematic settings among the competition venues for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games: the Canoe Slalom Course. Part of the X-Park and within the Deodoro Sports Complex, the venue shows how important the legacy left by the Games is to Rio City Hall. During the Olympics, the place will gather the best athletes from all over the world. Once it ends, the park will become the second largest leisure area in the city – bringing together the population of the 10 surrounding neighborhoods and 3 adjoining municipalities (around 1.5 million people). Apart from sport equipment, the place will have an area dedicated to the citizen, with a selected offer of community services. This Tuesday, Mayor Eduardo Paes unveils the Family Clinic ("Clínica da Família") that will be built there, offering eight teams of family care and three dental teams.
Work at the canoe course already reached 85%. Guiding tracks and obstacles are already in place and the lake is already filled up; the 8,424 temporary seats will be installed only for the Games. The Mayor will start today the pumps for the training and competition channels. The competition channel is 250m-long and uses four pumps, whereas the training one is 200m-long, and uses three pumps. The water volume in the venue is over 25,000 cubic meters – or the equivalent to seven times an Olympic swimming pool. From 26 to 29 November the course will be used in the test-event, gathering 250 athletes from 40 countries.
As one of the golden rules for the City Hall is to simplify the sport venues without compromising the Olympic standards, the slope is less accentuated in order to save energy from pumping water upstream until the top. The modification has not affected the technical demands from the International Canoe Federation and the International Olympic Committee, who followed closely the development of the project. Whitewater Parks International, the company responsible for London 2012’s courses, made the prototypes of the training and competition courses; the Czech Technical University in Prague built them in almost three months and with a team of 30 people.
LEGACY PLAN
After the Olympic Games, the canoe slalom course – as well as the BMX Center – will be part of the X-Park, offering several options for leisure and sport activities, including a cycling trail. With almost 50,000 sqm, it will be the second largest leisure area in the city, just behind Parque do Flamengo. It will be most welcomed by the huge youth population who live nearby and do not have many sport and leisure options for the moment.
Surrounded by the neighborhoods of Anchieta, Campo dos Afonsos, Deodoro, Guadalupe, Jardim Sulacap, Magalhães Bastos, Parque Anchieta, Realengo, Ricardo de Albuquerque and the Military Village, Deodoro Sports Complex lays in an intersection of three populated municipalities from the Greater Rio de Janeiro - Nilópolis, Nova Iguaçu and Mesquita -, spreading the benefits of the legacy to these contiguous areas.
X-park was divided into five sectors, each one with a specifically tailored management scheme. Sector 1 (canoe slalom and BMX center) will have a mixed use for public and high-performance athletes. The slalom course will have all the obstacles removed and users will be able to slide down the gentle rapids until reaching the lake - with or without floaters. The Olympic BMC center and its challenging hills remain in the park, receiving contiguous multi-sport courts.
Unlikely sector 1, Sector 2 will be dedicated to those interested in enjoying nature, offering hiking trails, gym equipment including those specifically designed for the elderly, and Zen/contemplative lounges with seats, kiosks and landscaped gardens. Sector 3 will offer a mini mountain bike trail, offering families an option for gatherings and picnics with barbecue facilities and hiking trails, apart from a belvedere from where it will be possible to overlook the whole park.
Finally, Sector 4 will host more courts that are multi-sports, a cycling path, a skateboard track and a beginner’s BMX trail. Sector 5 will be solely for community-oriented services, such as a Knowledge Vault ("Nave do Conhecimento"), a Family Clinic and environment education.
FAMILY CLINIC
The Family Clinic which will be built at the X-Park will offer eight teams of family-related health care and three dental teams, reaching 24,000 people in the area. This will be the 37th unity in the region that already has 11 Family Clinics, 14 Municipal Health Centers ("CMS"), four Psycho-Social Centers ("CAPS"), three Emergency Units ("UPA"), two general hospitals and two maternity hospitals.
The Family Clinics are part of an innovative and pioneering project that allowed a revolution in the health sector in the city. Rio already has 77 Family Clinics since 2009. City Hall’s aim is to launch 63 more until the end of 2016, reaching 70% of the population by the Family Health Strategy. In 2008, Rio was the worst capital when it came to health coverage – only 3.5% of its population were reached. Nowadays the number already increased to 48.1% of the population, which means more than 3 million people benefiting from it.
DEODORO SPORTS COMPLEX
Deodoro Sports Complex will host 11 Olympic disciplines (equestrian eventing, jumping and dressage; BMX, mountain bike, modern pentathlon, shooting, canoe slalom, hockey, rugby and basketball) and four Paralympic (shooting, football 7-a-side, fencing; equestrian eventing, jumping and dressage).
Deodoro hosted 2007’s Pan American Games and 2011’s World Military Games, making it available 60% of the permanent competition venues needed for the Games – National Shooting Center, National Equestrian Center, Olympic Hockey Center and Modern Pentathlon Aquatic Center needed just to be adapted. To conform to the Olympic Project, the place received three more venues that are permanent: Youth Arena, Olympic BMX Center and the canoe slalom course. Mountain bike trail and Deodoro Stadium - where rugby matches and 3 of the 5 pentathlon modalities will be held (running & shooting and equestrian) -, will be temporary venues.
Rio City Hall is coordinating the work, funded by the Ministry of Sports. The City Hall took the responsibility for the project and construction work at the Complex in November 2013, starting by then to coordinate the schedule in order have it finished for the Games. From the moment the Candidature File was delivered until now, the responsibility for the Deodoro Sports Complex passed from the Federal Government to the State government, to finally land on the City Hall’s desk.
For further information contact:
Press Office:
olimpiada.prefeituradorio@gmail.com
Communications Coordinator for the Rio 2016 Games – Rio City Hall:
Carol Medeiros – (21) 2016 9725 / 98909 1801
Press Officers:
Elisa López – (21) 2016 9726
Christine Lages – (21) 2016 9727
Adriana Moreira – (21) 2016 9732
Roberta Taliberti – (21) 2016 9728
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
