The Tribune

THE Olympic flame was handed to organisers of the Rio de Janeiro Games in Athens yesterday, 100 days before the opening ceremony in Brazil.

Dressed as a high priestess, actress Katerina Lehou led the brief ceremony at the Panathenian Stadium, a horseshoe-shaped marble venue where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896. Lehou, who lit the flame in Ancient Olympia last week, used a torch to light a cauldron inside the Athens stadium.

The flame, placed in a lantern, was handed over to Greek Olympic Committee president Spyros Kapralos, who, in turn, passed it to Rio Games organising head Carlos Nuzman.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who is fighting impeachment over allegations of erroneous budget figures, declined an invitation to visit Greece for the lighting ceremony and start of the Olympic torch’s six-day journey around Greece.

During the two-week Games this summer, Nuzman said Brazilians would come together in celebration. “Our mission, dear friends, is bigger than Brazil itself. We represent all the peoples of South America,” he told a crowd of several thousand Athenians.

In a highlight of the Greek torch relay, the flame made a symbolic stop on Tuesday at a United Nations-run refugee camp in Athens. The torch was carried by Syrian refugee Ibrahim Al-Hussein.

After yesterday’s ceremony, the flame will travel to Switzerland, where it will visit the United Nations building in Geneva and the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. The flame will reach Brazil on Tuesday, starting in the capital, Brasilia. Organisers say it will reach most of the vast country’s 200 million population, covering 12,000 miles by road and 10,000 miles by air to reach hundreds of cities and towns in a giant effort involving 12,000 torchbearers.

The torch will reach Rio’s Maracana Stadium for the opening ceremony on August 5.

“We will take the Olympic experience to every corner of our country, to every state capital,” Nuzman said. “When you arrive in Rio there will plenty of music, poetry and excitement. Rio is ready to deliver history.”

Residents of Rio will get three new holidays during the Olympics as part of a plan to keep people off the roads and limit the city’s suffocating traffic, the city’s Mayor, Eduardo Paes, announced yesterday.

The holidays will include the day of the opening ceremony, the day of the triathlon on August 18 and the day following the closing ceremony on August 22. The last holiday is to help visitors leave town.

Paes also said motorists would be fined 1,500 Brazilian reals (about $425) if they are caught driving in special Olympic lanes set aside for the Games. The Olympic lanes will start operating on July 25. Paes also said large trucks would be restricted from the city from July 18 to September 18.

Despite Brazil’s economic and political turmoil, slow Olympic ticket sales and delays at some Olympic venues, Paes said he was optimistic with 100 days to go. “We arrived at this moment in a way many doubted we could,” Paes said. “There are some details and issues to be addressed, problems we saw in the test-events. But things are going well in the preparations.”

Amnesty International also marked the 100 days, saying in a statement that at least 11 people have been killed in police shootings in Rio’s impoverished favelas since the beginning of the month. It said at least 307 people were killed by police last year, accounting for 20 per cent of the homicides in the city. “Despite the promised legacy of a safe city for hosting the Olympic games, killings by the police have been steadily increasing over the past few years in Rio,” Amnesty said in a statement.

Rio will deploy about 85,000 soldiers and police during the games, about twice the number London used four years ago.

THE annual Drake Relays has lined up stars like LaShawn Merritt, Kirani James, Jenny Simpson, Brittney Reese and Bahamian hurdler Jeffrey Gibson to compete in this year’s meet, which starts today in Des Moines, Iowa, and runs through Saturday.

But the forecast is for cool weather and rain on Saturday, which could force athletes to pull out rather than risk an injury that would keep them out of the Olympic Games.

Purses of up to $20,000 for the winners of the elite races could convince some top runners that the conditions can be overcome.

Gibson faces Javier Culson, the Puerto Rican who finished ahead of him at the Chris Brown Bahamas Invitational earlier this month in a field which features two of the world’s best in the men’s 400m hurdles.

Six of the world’s top 10 400m runners according to 2015 rankings are scheduled to run, including the last two Olympic champions. Merritt, the 2008 gold medalist in Beijing, won silver at last year’s world championships and is hoping for another trip to the Olympics. James, who took first at the London Games in 2012, set the Drake record at 44.23 seconds and finished just behind Merritt at the worlds in 2015.

Simpson, the US 1500m runner, will begin her quest for a third straight Olympic berth at Drake, while Reese, a fan favourite for her ebullient personality, returns to Drake after recently winning the US indoor long jump title. A strong performance in Iowa could let the rest of the world know these athletes will be serious contenders in Rio.

ESPN Caribbean, the official broadcaster of Rio 2016, has announced its list of Olympic experts who will be reporting from Brazil, including top former Olympic athletes and sports journalists from the Caribbean.

The on-air team of experts will complement ESPN’s extensive coverage that will be presented to the Caribbean audience as part of its agreement with the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC). The network said coverage will be featured across ESPN’s platforms and also distributed via local broadcasters throughout the region. “As the official broadcaster, ESPN’s presentation of Rio 2016 will be customised to the Caribbean fan while bringing the local athletes, their quests and stories closer to the fans,” a press release read.

ESPN Caribbean will present more than 200 hours of content during the Games, with coverage airing on ESPN’s Caribbean television network and streaming live on ESPN Play Caribbean, and on cruise ships sailing in the Caribbean Sea. The network will also continue to present lead-up programming including Countdown to Rio, a primetime show that highlights the latest news and information around the event as well as Olympic sport genre programming.

ESPN Caribbean’s team of commentators will be led by Alexis Nunes and Isa Guha, who will serve as hosts of the Rio 2016 coverage, with Jo Ankier joins as onsite reporter. The contributions and analysis will come from a list of renowned Olympian athletes and experienced ESPN commentators including Grace Jackson, the Jamaican sprint silver Olympic medallist; Felix Sanchez, the Dominican Republic’s first Olympic champion winning two gold medals; Dwight Stones, the American television commentator and twice track and field Olympic medallist; Janelle Atkinson, the Jamaican former Olympian swimmer; Shaka Hislop, the former Trinidad & Tobago footballer; and Bernardo Osuna, ESPN’s commentator who will be the analyst for all boxing competitions.

The Tribune is following Team Bahamas in the build up to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and will be reporting from Brazil this summer. The ‘242 on the Road to Rio series’ will appear every Monday and Thursday. Comments and responses to bstubbs@tribunemedia.net