Brazil presents Legacy Plan

Brazilian Minister of Sports Leonardo Picciani and Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes will host a press conference this Thursday (4 August) at 2 p.m. at the Rio Media Center auditorium. During the event, they will present the legacy plan for the sports facilities built and renovated for the Rio 2016 Games, and offer details on how the sports equipment and materials will be reused after the mega-event. The legacy plan is the result of a partnership between the federal and city governments with the support of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, the Brazilian Paralympic Committee and various other sports organisations in the country.

According to the plan, the Barra da Tijuca and Deodoro facilities will together make up the Olympic Training Centre (OTC), to be managed and maintained by private sector partners, the Brazilian Army and sports confederations under agreements signed with the Ministry of Sports.

For Barra da Tijuca, a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) involving the City Government and sports confederations, has been established to oversee the area. At Deodoro, the Brazilian Army and sports entities will be in charge of management. One exception is Deodoro's Radical Park, featuring slalom canoeing circuits as well as mountain bike and BMX tracks, which will be managed by the City Government. This arrangement will allow Rio to develop sports initiatives - to be managed by the respective sports confederations - and offer leisure options for the community.

The management of the facilities, focused on sports development from base levels to high performance training, will follow the guidelines of the National Sports Training Network. The guidelines were published by the Ministry of Sports in the Federal Official Gazette this Tuesday (2 August).

The National Sports Training Network, created by Law No. 12,395/2011, has the goal of connecting different sports facilities and creating opportunities to spot talents and train young and professional athletes and teams, focusing on Olympic and Paralympic sports. The network also aims to train (and enhance exchanges between) coaches, referees, managers and other sports professionals.

The Network will consist of facilities built and equipped by the Ministry of Sports in partnership with sports entities and state and local governments. These also include facilities outside the state of Rio, such as the Pan American Judo Centre in Lauro de Freitas (Bahia), the Caixa Athletics Arena in São Bernardo do Campo (São Paulo), the Centre of Excellence in Diving in Brasília (Federal District), the Indaiatuba Velodrome (São Paulo), the Foz do Iguaçu Canoeing Centre (Paraná), the Brazilian Paralympic Training Centre (city of São Paulo, with facilities for 15 differents sports), the Handball Development Centre in São Bernardo do Campo (São Paulo) and the Northeast Olympic Training Centre in Fortaleza (Ceará). It also includes facilities that received new sports equipment, such as 16 gymnastics centres in 13 Brazilian cities and 29 basketball clubs and gymnasiums across the country, among others.

Sports equipment and materials

Another important legacy of the Rio 2016 Games are the 216 types of sporting materials and equipment acquired by the federal government (an investment of R$ 118.7 million). After the end of the Games, part of these items will be left as a legacy to the Armed Forces, and the rest will go to state and local governments and sports confederations. The Ministry of Sports will launch a public call to select interested recipients.

The items include swimming pools and official flooring for badminton, table tennis, handball, modern pentathlon, boccia, goalball, boxing, fencing and wheelchair rugby, as well as sports equipment for athletics, weightlifting and taekwondo.

The 2,800+ sporting equipment and material items purchased by the Rio 2016 Organising Committee may also be donated after the competitions. The Ministry of Sports established the guidelines for the process in early July. Since the equipment was purchased with tax exemptions, these items will remain exempted if they are donated to schools and universities (federal, state or local) and the Armed Forces. If the donation is made to confederations, clubs or other private entities, the Ministry of Sport will certify the entity and validate the project for their use. Once these organizations obtain the validation certificate, the Rio 2016 Organising Committee will submit the documentation to Brazil's Federal Revenue Service (Receita Federal) so that the equipment can be donated while maintaining its tax exemption.

More legacy

The construction and purchase of equipament for the new headquarters of the Brazilian Doping Control Laboratory (LBCD), located at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), as well as the renovation and construction of sports facilities in military units in Rio de Janeiro (RJ), are also legacies of the Games. For the construction of its new headquarters, the LBCD received investments of R$ 151.3 million from the Federal Government, complemented by an additional R$ 74.6 million for the purchase of equipment and materials. The laboratory was reaccredited by the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) in May 2015, becoming the 34th laboratory in the world (and the second in South America) to be accredited by that institution. The other South American laboratory is located in Bogotá, Colombia.

The doping control technology used is the most sophisticated possible, and supply chains in various industries rely on qualified chemical tests such as the ones developed for this purpose. Brazil, therefore, gains technical and scientific know-how with the LBCD that goes beyond the blood and urine tests it performs to identify doping; the lab will continue furthering its work on scientific and technological research in several areas, academic education and specialised professional training.

Investments in military units and in the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro's School of Physical Education and Sports exceeded R$ 200 million. The sports facilities are already being used as training centres by Brazilian and foreign delegations. After the competitions, they will also be incorporated into the National Sports Training Network. Investments in military units went to the Army Physical Training Centre (CCFEx), the Naval School, the University of the Air Force (UNIFA), the Admiral Adalberto Nunes Physical Education Centre (Cefan) and the Aeronautics Club (Caer).

More information
Ministry of Sport
Press Office

Andrea Cordeiro
+ 55 (61) 98165-7901

Cynthia Ribeiro
+ 55 (61) 98401-2403

imprensa@esporte.gov.br