Swimming Third Hottest Olympic Ticket in First Week of Sales

With 7.4 million Olympic tickets up for grabs, approximately 174,000 Brazilians have already registered for the first draw of tickets for domestic fans ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games.

Read about the ticketing process here.

Among those 174,000, swimming was the third-highest demanded sport, with 21% of the registrants.

1. Volleyball – 27%
2. Soccer – 21.9%
3. Swimming – 21%
4. Athletics (track & field) – 20.8%
5. Gymnastics – 20.4%

This list speaks as much to the popularity of sports specifically in Brazil as it does to the tastes of the general world sporting population. The Brazilian women have won the last two Olympic golds in women’s volleyball, and the men are two-time Olympic gold medalist (1992, 2004) and three-time Olympic silver medalists (1984, 2008, 2012).

In beach volleyball, Brazil has won 13 out of a possible 20 Olympic medals in volleyball and have had a pair advance to every single gold medal match in the tournament’s history.

Soccer, the 2nd-most popular ticket so far, is Brazil’s biggest sport, their national pastime, and a sport almost synonymous with Brazilian culture. There has been a high demand for soccer tickets even with the men’s soccer tournament not being a senior-level tournament – rather it is a U-23 tournament.

At 18,000 seats, swimming falls at the midpoint among the venue sizes for the top 5 most-demanded tickets. The Olympic Aquatics Stadium will hold 18,000 spectators, which is larger than the Maracanazinho Arena (volleyball – 12,000); and the Rio Olympic Arena (gymnastics – 12,000).

The Joao Havelange Stadium for athletics holds a whopping 60,000 fans, and the famed Maracana, home of the football final, holds 90,000 fans.

Last week, organizers announced the ticketing process for the 2016 Olympic Games. The first draw for Brazilian residents will be in March of 2015, with the results announced in June. Those who applied for the first draw can then apply again for the second draw, the results of which will be announced in August of 2015.

Non-Brazilian fans can begin buying tickets through authorized ticket retailers in March of 2015.