Sharp drop in ratings for opening ceremony

With a limited budget, the outcome of a biting recession that roiled preparations for South America’s first Olympics, Brazil laced its high-energy opening party for the games of the 31st Olympiad with a sobering message of the dangers of global warming.

“First time up I was feeling really good, I was perfectly placed by Hugo and Antoine, they did an awesome job and I felt great over the climb, but the second time up something exploded in my legs and I just came apart”, said Woods who felt he could have finished in the top 10.

The Rio Olympics officially started with a long and loud celebration of Brazilian culture that also featured some unfortunate reminders of the troubled backdrop to these Games.

While the energy was high during Friday night’s colorful Olympics opening ceremony, the television ratings took a disappointing 28% plunge from the last summer Games in London. NBC Olympics executive producer Jim Bell denied Tuesday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour that NBC had pressured the International Olympic Committee to announce the teams in English so that the United States could be one of the last countries to walk.

The crowd roared when Bundchen sashayed from one side of the 78,000-seat arena to the other, as Tom Jobim’s grandson, Daniel, played his grandfather’s famous song about the Ipanema girl “tall and tan and young and lovely”.

Two of the most anticipated competitions come Saturday evening in men’s basketball and swimming. I’d watched it so many times and now I was there.

Van Avermaet out-sprinted Jakob Fuglsang and Rafal Majka on the long run to the finish at sun-splashed Copacabana Beach after Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali and Colombia’s Sergio Henao crashed while trying to navigate a corner on the final harrowing descent of the 6-hour race.

Showcasing Rio’s famed beaches and majestic mountains, the men’s road race began under clear, sunny skies buzzing with helicopters – some carrying TV cameras, others from the military to provide security. Tour de France champion Chris Froome needed a bike change after a mechanical issue.

News reports that hundreds of intelligence analysts, field agents, security personnel, and other members of all 17 US security agencies have been sent to Rio to keep their eye on the games in the hopes of heading off terrorist attacks and other unrest that has been threatened by a variety of sources. He cited the first-ever Olympic Refugee Team as an example of the idea that achieving success is possible no matter where you are from, saying the ten competitors personify endurance. When the seeds sprout, they will be planted in a Rio park.

-YOUTH SERVED: Thrasher topped her spectacular spring where she won three NCAA titles and a spot on the U.S. Olympic team by upsetting China’s Li Du, a two-time gold medalist, to capture the 10-meter air rifle title. The photographers said they then saw a shooter running from the scene and fleeing in a vehicle close to a university parking lot.

There were jeers and booing from the audience as the 75-year-old politician, who stepped up from the post of vice-president and replaced suspended President Dilma Rousseff, declared open the first Games ever in South America.

The opening of the London games in 2012 had a 23.0 overnight rating. Creative director Fernando Meirelles said their budget, slashed by half as Brazil’s economic recession bit ever harder, “is 12 times less than London, 20 times less than Beijing”. Said writhed on the ground in agony while medical officials tended to him. He exited on a stretcher to a standing ovation.