A small amount of time separates us from the opening ceremony of the event sport fans all over the world have been waiting for the past 4 years: the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. In the Brasilian stadium Maracanã athletes representing 207 countries (located on all of the 5 continents represented by the Olympic cirles) will march waving their nations’ flags. It will be possible to watch the entire opening ceremony starting from 23:15 GMT (19:15 local time).
Italy will present 308 athletes, a bigger number compared to 4 years ago ( the Italians in London 2012 were 287), 164 men and 144 women. The number of women in Rio is a record for the italian team, as the number of female athletes has never been so high in previous editions (the former record was 137, registered during the 2004 Athens Olympic Games).
It is a woman that will be Italy’s standard-bearer at the opening ceremony: the honour has been granted to the swimmer Federica Pellegrini, who has already triumphed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and will seek glory in the race that could be the last of her olympic career.
These Games will mark the debut of a new sport, Rugby 7, and the return of another after 100 years of absence, Golf( which was part of the olympic programme during the Los Angeles 1904 Games for the last time). Two new countries will also participate for the first time: South Sudan and Kosovo.