A consultant hired by the Brazilian Olympic Committee (BOC) has added to the case for the country to significantly expand its investment in high performance sport ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympics. Finland´s Jukka Lahtinen, an ex-triple jump athlete and current president of the International Association of High Performance Sport Centres, is advising the BOC about the ongoing “CT Time Brasil” project, a training centre being established in Rio de Janeiro.
Lahtinen commented this week that, beyond the new Rio centre, Brazil needs to implant a number of other high performance facilities around the country to harness its enormous yet largely undeveloped potential. He added that he believes they have the conditions to develop such a network over the coming years and could establish some of the best training centres in the world.
For the first phase of the CT Time Brasil project, the BOC is establishing state of the art facilities for swimming and synchronized swimming, diving, water polo, taekwondo, artistic gymnastics, weightlifting, cycling, boxing and artistic skating.
The centre is being developed within the existing Maria Lenk Aquatic Park and Velodrome in Rio’s Barra da Tijuca region, where the majority of 2016 Olympics facilities will be located.