The ATR Interview: Rio 2016 CEO Leonardo Gryner

(ATR) With the spotlight shifting to Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Olympics, CEO Leonardo Gryner talks to Around the Rings Editor Ed Hula.

The interview was conducted in London August 10.

Around the Rings: Are you ready for the attention? It's no longer London anymore, it’s Rio de Janeiro?

Leo Gryner: We are ready to take the challenge.

ATR: Do you have any nervousness? What to do next? What is the next big thing you have to do?

LG: We know what we have to do. Of course we are very anxious being an organizer of the Olympic Games it brings a lot of anxiety because of what you want to deliver, you have a concept you have an idea, but you must make sure that at the end of the day you reach 2016 that message will come across.

ATR: What is the next step for Rio de Janeiro with your staff, with your team? What do you tell them?

LG: Well first of all we're going to sit and exchange information. We have 152 people here on the observer program across Olympic and Paralympic Games. We have 52 from the government, different levels of government in Brazil that are also participating the observation program.

The observation program put together by the IOC and another one that was put together by the British government for our government, so we have lots of lessons learned that we are going to share and that's the main thing.

There are many premises there that we used to develop our plans, so now we came here and followed up and checked to see if what we were thinking would work on the real world.

So now it’s time to go back and say ok it was a good idea, oh that one wouldn't be a good idea because of that, and because of how it happens in the real world and we need to change that. So it's time to collect all this information and gather it here and incorporate that in that planning.

ATR: Are there lessons to be learned here from London?

LG: Many, many lessons to be learned. First of all, their preparation was fantastic and they had a really good team in planning and we've been learning with them for the last year because we've been interacting with them and talking with them to the British team. So there was lots of good preparation, good planning that was done here that we must replicate, and it was key for presentation of the Olympic Games that Seb's team did.

The second thing, that there are special programs that are very well done. The transport system was working very well, the preparation for the volunteers, the volunteers did a great job, and that is not an easy task the preparation because there are so many of them.

The ticketing program was very successful, the numbers they made were amazing, and two days ago the press said there were 8 million tickets sold, very impressive.

At the end of the day when you talk to the athletes…I've been to the village a few times, and when you talk to the athletes the overall experience has been wonderful. They are very, very happy with what London has delivered to the athletes in terms of level, service, and all facilities itself in terms of training and the village itself, food and the competition venues.

ATR: You don't have to do it the same way, but do you have to do it as good as London has done it here?

LG: Well the main goal of the Olympic Movement is to be better every day so every four years we need to be better than the previous one, and the 2020 host city will have the challenge to do better than we will do in 2016. And that's how the Olympic Movement could grow along the years.

ATR: During the IOC session in July there was report about Rio de Janeiro and the progress you are making. And it pointed out some weaknesses, some things you have to address when you get back to Rio de Janeiro.

How about addressing those concerns, those worries of the IOC that you are not moving fast enough, that you are not at the level of preparation that you should be four years out?

LG: Well we have main groups of projects so we'll go one by one and see where we are at. First is the urban infrastructure. So all the transport we have to build and they are all underway. They have a starting date and have a finish date. Most of them are progressing and some of them are ahead of schedule, so in that area we are doing very well.

We have the port regeneration program that is ongoing. Phase one of this has been delivered this past June. So in that area we are doing pretty well.

If you go into the infrastructure, some of the concerns is the airport. In terms of construction the physical renovation of the airport, we are going well the construction is coming along nicely. What is a challenge for us is the operation of the airport and we have established a working group now bringing together into this group the many departments that are involved in the airport operations in Brazil. By the end of this year we will deliver the operation manual for this, so four years ahead of time we are already thinking on how to operate successfully the airport.

In terms of venues we didn't have many big venues to be built. The track and field is there, the swimming center is there, the shooting center is there. So what we have to deliver in terms of permanent facilities, permanent venues, the most complicated one will be the velodrome and the tennis center and those are not very complicated in terms of building an Olympic Stadium like London had to do.

In terms of building an Olympic Park we are progressing well we just started the construction of the Olympic Park. The Olympic Park will have the tennis center and the velodrome in there. For the Diodoro zone it's even easier, more easy to do because we just have the mountain bikes, the BMX, the mountain path that we are just going to adapt. The field hockey we are improving the facility that we provided for the Pan American Games, so they are no big constructions to be done, so in that sense we feel very comfortable that by 2015 all the venues will be ready for the test events.

ATR: Why would the IOC be so worried about the situation then?

LG: I think that what most concerns the IOC is the integration at the operational level. So we have a good integration of federal government, state government that you've seen since the bid.

Each of the challenges now is to bring this level of integration to the operational planning. The IOC has indicated to us that we should start right away for the planning on the operations, because if we go too late on the operational planning it may harm the constructions that you have done.

Just to say a silly thing, oh we need 2 doors in this room, and we've build just one so later we need tobreak and build another one.

So their concerns are more on the operational level, integration of all the levels of government, how to deliver the last mile, the village, operations of the stadium, crowd management going in and out, and again crowd management with connecting the the drop off zones or terminals to the venues it's more on the operational level.

ATR: Some IOC members say that there needs to be a change in the structure of the organizing committee. What are the possibilities that there will be changes, and how the organizing committee is structured and managed?

LG: Well we are doing some changes in our team already, we changed the Chief Commercial Officer, we now have a stronger guy in that position than before. We've changed our COO, our Chief Operating Officer, we brought someone who is more capable of delivering such a huge and complex project. So we are doing some changes in our organization we've learned, we listened to the IOC and we came here to London with a new team in place.

ATR: And we heard the questions in the press conferences in London about the name of the track and field stadium, Joao Havelange. That's obviously going to be an issue that will remain with you possibly for the next four years. Is it uncomfortable to have to answer these questions all the time?

LG: Not at all, not at all. First thing is to clarify to people, it is not to the organizing the committee to name the stadium. It is the owners of the stadium that pick the name for the stadiums. So this one in particular belongs to the city and the city named the stadium after Joao Havelange.

Having said that we are very proud of Joao Havelange. Joao Havelange is a fantastic person he is an icon in our country and he has done so much for sports worldwide and in Brazil, so we feel proud of him and he was part of our team and we are very proud of having him on board and we look forward to celebrating his 100th birthday in Rio de Janeiro with a great opening ceremony for him.

ATR: The O2 arena here is called North Greenwich Arena. Is there any possibility that the Havelange Stadium will have a different name during the games? Is that a choice you have to make?

LG: Well again this is for the owner to name their venues we just use the existing venues. We don't name any venues.

ATR: What do you think the reception will be when the flag comes to Rio?

LG: People are very excited to have the games in Rio. One thing that maybe will be a little different in our project than in others, is that we are delivering some of the benefits of hosting the games already to the population.

For instance what I said, the first part of the renovation of the port is already there.

The first link, BRT link, it’s open and being used by the population. The second BRT, the longest BRT, will connect Baja to the international airport, will be ready by 2014.

So every year you are experiencing the benefits of hosting the Olympic Games in Rio.

ATR: Are people more excited about the World Cup coming or for the Olympics?

LG: I think for both. People in Rio love to party, love to have big events, and they are all keen to participate in both.

Written and reported in London by Ed Hula.