2016 Summer Olympics

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The 2016 Summer Olympics or Games of the XXXI Olympiad was an international sporting event that mostly took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 6th to 21st August. Rio will also host the XV Paralympic Games in September.

Other Brazilian cities such as São Paulo hosted football matches with Rio.

The Rio Games was the first time that the events were held in South America. The closing ceremony saw Rio hand over to the host of the 2020 Summer Olympics, Tokyo.

Participation[edit]

Russian team[edit]

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) stopped short of a blanket ban on Russian athletes participating at Rio following the publication of a report by Richard McLaren, a law professor, which said that Russia practised state-sponsored doping from 2011 to 2015.^[1] In contrast, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) banned the entire Russian paralympic team on 7th August 2016.^[2]

Refugee team[edit]

The Rio Games was the first time that some athletes participated as a team of refugees. These participants were from a variety of countries: South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Syria. Other former refugees also competed as part of national teams.^[3]

Bidding process[edit]

Rio de Janeiro was selected as host city in October 2009, beating Madrid, Tokyo and Chicago, Illinois in three rounds of voting by the International Olympic Committee in Copenhagen, Denmark. The final round saw Rio take a 66-32 majority of votes to secure the 31st Summer Olympic Games.^[4]

Footnotes[edit]