While history will be written on the track, field and court, the stories behind the greatest athletes in the world will come from a state-of-the-art media centre at Rio’s Olympic Park.
Measuring 27,000m2, the Main Press Centre (MPC) welcomed the first of 6,000 accredited journalists who will be based at the site during the Games on Tuesday, 5 July.
As Rio marked one month until the Opening Ceremony, media teams from around the world began to take residence in the heart of the Olympic action, close to the Live Site, aquatic centre, velodrome and Carioca arenas 1, 2 and 3.
Among the first journalists to set up at the MPC were Agence France Presse (AFP), Japanese outlet Yomuri Shimbum, Brazilian magazine Veja and specialist website Around the Rings. Photographers from Getty Images and staff from Sports Illustrated also took up their desks at the centre.
More than 720 volunteers have been trained to work on site, where the facilities include an accreditation centre, post office, a medical post and an official Rio 2016 store. There is also a bank, launderette and a pharmacy. Members of the press can validate their accreditation at the recently refurbished international airport, Galeão.
“After a lot of work, the time has come to put into practice everything that we have planned for,” says Ana Mathias, workforce manager. “We are all very excited.”
The MPC was handed over to the Rio 2016 Committee back in April during a visit from the IOC’s Coordination Commission. “From here, beautiful stories will travel across the world,” Nawal El-Moutawakel, chair of the Coordination Commission, said earlier this year. “Stories about how athletes achieved their dreams. Stories about records and medals. Stories about how Rio and how the Brazilian people made all of this possible.”
The centre will be open from 7am to 10pm until July 29, when it will be open around the clock.