Rio Olympic Venue Hosts Carnival Celebrations

(ATR) Rio de Janeiro’s famous Samba schools marched and danced down an Olympic venue for the 2015 Carnival parade.

Twelve schools are competing over two days on Feb. 15-16 as part of the championship parade for the city's most elite schools.

The Sambadrome will serve as the venue for Olympic archery and the start/finish for the marathon. Renovations on the venue were completed in 2012 in time for Carnival.

Carnival will run through Fat Tuesday on Feb. 17, after which Rio de Janeiro will prepare for the arrival of the IOC Coordination Commission.

The co-comm will inspect the progress of Rio 2016 from Feb. 23-25 with the IOC Executive Board meeting on Feb. 26-28.

Tennis Star in Town

Olympic gold medalist and tennis star Rafael Nadal took in Carnival with Brazilian tennis star Gustavo Kuerten.

Speaking to AFP, Nadal said the festivities are "something unique and very special."

Nadal is in Rio de Janeiro for the Rio Open tournament, and spoke about competing in the 2016 Olympics.

The tennis star said he was "surprised" that the 2016 tennis tournament will be played on a hardcourt surface and not clay.

"I am surprised that in a country which has clay specialists the Olympics are going to be on hardcourt," Nadal said in a press conference reported by AFP.

In response to Nadal’s comments, the International Tennis Federation clarified that due to the proximity of the United States Open, the Olympic tournament would be played on the same surface, hard court.

"Brazil was able to pull off successfully something as complicated as a World Cup and I am sure the Olympics are going to be a success."

Nadal won the gold medal in men’s single tennis at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Written by Aaron Bauer

Homepage photo: Getty Images

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