The Pan American Games will leave an important sporting legacy to Brazil and qualify Rio de Janeiro as an Olympic host, Brazil's Sport Minister Orlando Silva Junior said on Saturday.
"The country's presence in the international scenario can already be felt by the scheduling of important competitions such as the judo world championships, synchronized swimming and the military world games," Silva told a press conference.
The hemisphere-wide Olympic-style Pan American Games, which involve about 5,600 athletes from 42 countries and regions competing in 34 sports, are regarded as a huge test for Brazil to prove its capability of hosting major international sporting events.
Silva said he believes that the Brazilian organizers have lived up to expectations.
"What Brazil showed with Rio 2007 was its capability to host a large multi-sporting event," he said.
"We had more than 4,000 athletes from 42 countries (and regions), about 10,000 visitors and no serious incident occurred. We even had a reduction of common crimes in Rio, which shows that the security has worked."
It was reported that up to two billion US dollars have been invested to make the Games a success, several times more than first planned. Around 20,000 police officers have been on duty to ensure that the Games run smoothly, amid concern about the level of violence and crime in Rio.
With the Pan Ams coming to a close, Brazil's mind now is on the Olympic Games, said Silva.
"Now we need to prepare a good Olympic project to make the dream of bringing the Olympic Games to Brazil come true," said Silva.
Along with Rio, Madrid, Tokyo, Chiago, Doha of Qatar and Baku of Azerbaijan are interested in staging the 2016 Summer Olympics. The IOC will select the host city in October 2009.
Source: Xinhua
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