- Title: BRAZIL: Olympic flag tours Rio de Janeiro's slums
- Date: 15th August 2012
- Summary: COMPLEXO DO ALEMAO RESIDENT, JOHNNY DA SILVA, FLYING A KITE CLOSE OF KITE (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) COMPLEXO DO ALEMAO RESIDENT, JOHNNY DA SILVA, SAYING: "If I had to practice any sports it would be football and cycling."
- Embargoed: 30th August 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Brazil
- Country: Brazil
- Topics: People,Sports,Social Services / Welfare
- Reuters ID: LVA48HKVOLVS1T3T55TWZPZ5DDE9
- Story Text: The Olympic flag made a tour through Rio de Janeiro's slums on Wednesday (August 15) before being taken to the government's headquarters where it will be kept on display for the public.
Its first stop was the massive Alemao favela, which became a symbol of the city's slum pacification efforts after police drove out drug traffickers from the violent community in 2010.
The ceremony featured Rio's state governor Sergio Cabral, Rio 2016 Committee President Carlos Arthur Nuzman, and Brazil's boxing brothers, Esquiva and Yamaguchi Falcao, who in London won silver and bronze respectively.
Local residents packed the slum's community centre to catch a glimpse of the Olympic flag. Many children posed for photos and got autographs from the boxers.
Fourteen-year-old, Johnny da Silva, said he also dreamt of being an Olympic champion.
"If I had to practice any sports it would be football and cycling," he said.
Afterwards the flag was taken to a military school in the poor district of Realengo, where hundreds of avid schoolchildren stood waiting next to an army band.
But the flag's home for the next months will be Rio's government palace, where it will remain on display inside a glass dome until the inauguration Olympic pavilion in the city's downtown. Work at the Olympic centre in Rio's business district is set to end in November.
After a ceremony at the government palace, Nuzman said 2016 Games would be delivered without delays.
"London, Beijing, Athens, all of them have a different story and a different way of doing things. All of them were ready, just like Rio will be ready to host a great Olympic Games," he said.
Only 66 of the 230 projects that must be completed over the next four years have been finished. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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