Foundation Nearly Complete on Rio 2016 Olympic Aquatics Stadium

As anticipated, with the completion of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, construction has accelerated on the venues for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

July 30th marks 737 days (next week will be two years out) until the beginning of the Olympics and 770 until the Paralympics, although the venues need to be completed in advance to allow for test events. Those test events begin next week, with the Aquece Rio International Sailing Regatta 2014 from August 2nd-9th, and will include 23 Olympic medalists.

Specifically with regard to the event’s primary swimming venue, the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in the Barra Park cluster, the buildings foundations have been laid – the last update on July 10th said that all foundations in the Barra group were “almost complete,” and now three weeks later they are complete, with noticeable progress being made on the above-ground structures.

Barra is the main Olympic park, and the swim stadium will seat 18,000 spectators when completed. Earlier this year, IOC officials, including the head of the Australian Olympic Committee, were very critical of Rio’s progress in construction. While organizing officials did refer to that as an important “wake up call,” they’ve also said publicly that they thought the reference to being the worst Olympic preparations ever were an exaggeration.

Click here to see a photo gallery of progress on the Barra Olympic Park.