Sports Management Q2 2011 - UUM

INTERVIEW
“The city hadn’t witnessed urban renewal
for 75 years, so we highlighted the
proposed transformation of the city’s port
area, including the terminals and the three
neighbourhoods within, as well as the development
of new transport links to the
new sports facilities. With this objective in
mind we actually developed some sporting
facilities to Olympic standard when we
won the Pan American Games,” he says.
After years of under-investment, Gryner
says a key advantage of securing these
major sporting events has been to allow
Brazil a platform on which to accelerate
the development of its sporting infrastructure,
its marketing programmes – to
help support sport – and an elite performance
programme for budding athletes.
In fact, Gryner says the country is
already acting upon its legacy commitments
from the Pan American Games,
with the setting up of an annual School
Games Tournament, which he says now
involves millions of children across the
country. He says the challenge now is to
work towards ensuring a minimum standard
of regular, compulsory PE lessons in
all the country’s schools through the Brazilian
Ministry of Education.
Transforming the city
Rio’s 2016 competition venues will be
clustered in four zones – Barra, Copacabana,
Deodoro and Maracanã. Of the
34 competition venues, of which 18 are
already operational, eight will undergo
Left: Stadium built for 2007 Pan American
Games. Above and right: Envisaged transformation
of the city’s port area. Below
left: Olympic sport on Baha beach
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extended development, seven will be
temporary structures and nine will be
constructed as permanent legacy venues.
They will be connected to a highperformance
transport system that will
enable almost half of the athletes to
reach their venues in less than 10 minutes
and the rest in under 25 minutes.
Regarding the facility design, Gryner
says that since hosting the South American
Games in 2002, Brazil has been on a
“journey of education” in the design and
development of effective, sustainable,
sports facilities. “For example, a Brazilian
architect helped design sports facilities
for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic
facilities, another worked in Delhi for the
2010 Commonwealth Games and there’s
one working in London towards 2012.
“Of course this collaboration works
both ways. Australian architects John
Baker Associates, direct from the Sydney
Olympics, worked on facilities for the
Pan American Games.”
Another major legacy that came out of
the Pan American Games was the transformation
of the whole security system in
Rio, which has now been adapted into a
new way of policing throughout the country.
“This included restructuring policing
methods, the use of forensic evidence and
the dismissal of ‘bad’ cops. The result of
which has seen crime rates drop substantially,
in the past four years, and the area
become much safer,” Gryner says.
Spreading the impact
Already a major hub for sports provision
in South America, particularly in the
popular sports of football, volleyball,
swimming, judo and sailing, Gryner says
that elite athletes from the surrounding
area already train in Brazil. So the new
Olympic facilities and corresponding performance
programmes will enhance elite
development throughout the region.
“The foreign office has instigated a
sport scholarship programme to fund
talented athletes from South America
and Africa to train in Brazil, and we
also have coaching links where Brazilan
coaches mentor sports coaches in other
countries,” he says.
Regarding service providers for the
Games, Gryner says that Brazil and other
South American countries are members
of a common market in the region and
companies within this partnership are encouraged
to bid to service the Games.
“The Games will bring social, economic
and sporting benefit to Brazil and
open up many opportunities for our
South American neighbours, but the biggest
benefactors will be our children,”
he says. “Education is now high on the
agenda and improving the quality of
education for everyone – particularly the
underprivileged. And one way to attract
the youth into school is through sport.”
Issue 2 2011 © cybertrek 2011