Brazil´s Minister of Sport Orlando Silva Jr has provided some telling insights into future sport policy in the country, declaring at an event in Rio through the week that their challenge for 2011 and beyond is to increasingly link sport to education and provide new opportunities for social inclusion for millions of students around the country. He said although they have already begun to invest in the area there now needs to be much greater effort to ensure sustainable development across various sporting disciplines, both before and after the two mega-events scheduled to be held in the country over the coming years.
Silva also reiterated their focus on seeking out new Olympic talents, as did the secretary of sport for the state of Rio de Janeiro, Marcia Lins, who added that such work is already underway through the ongoing establishment of 650 special ‘Rio 2016’ centres that are developing talent across 30 sports. Although the project is already reaching 130,000 youths, the plan is to triple this number over the next few years.