Rio 2016 Bid Hit By Swimming Cancellation

Rio de Janeiro’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics has received a last-minute body blow after the Brazilian city’s cancellation of a World Cup swimming event prompted major question marks as to its ability to stage one of the flagship Olympic competitions.

The World Cup swimming event scheduled for Rio de Janeiro next month was cancelled after organisers failed to come up with enough funding.

The announcement comes only a matter of days before the International Olympic Committee vote on who will host the 2016 Summer Olympics with Rio competing against Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo.

‘There are no financial resources. They cannot find any funding. They say they cannot do it,’ Cornel Marculescu, the executive director of swimming governing body FINA.

Marculescu said Rio informed FINA of the decision ‘two or three weeks ago’, adding that the Brazilian city has also pulled out of hosting World Cup events from 2010-13.

The FINA executive director however refused to speculate how much of an impact the decision would have on Rio’s chances of hosting the 2016 Olympics.

He said: ‘I only know about my own sport, and there will be no World Cup in Rio for the next four years. The Olympic Games is a different budget. Rio’s proposals for aquatics venues are very good.’

Belo Horizonte has hosted a World Cup event for the last several years, but the Brazilian federation wanted to move the meet to Rio to attract a better international field.

Without Rio, only five World Cup events will be held this year — in Durban, South Africa; Moscow, Stockholm, Berlin and Singapore.

From 2010-2013 there will be seven short-course meets — in Berlin, Stockholm, Moscow, Dubai and Singapore; and at sites to be determined in China and Japan.