Earlier this month, when the International Olympic Committee was about to announce the location of the 2016 Summer Games, a very famous man flew to Denmark to help his country\u2019s bid. \u00a0This man, a descendant of slaves and a national icon, made an impassioned last-minute plea. \u00a0The IOC heard him out, and agreed.\u00a0 They awarded the games to Rio de Janeiro and the man – Edison Arantes do Nascimento – broke down in joyful tears.<\/p>\n
If you want a quick primer on the distribution of world power, just check out a list of previous Olympic venues. \u00a0The United States has hosted 8 games, more than any other nation, and North America has hosted 12 games in all. \u00a0Europe has hosted 30 games in over a dozen of its nations. \u00a0Japan has hosted 3 times.\u00a0 Australia, essentially an outpost of the United Kingdom, has hosted 2. \u00a0And China and Korea have each hosted once.\u00a0 No nation from either South America or Africa has ever hosted an Olympiad.<\/p>\n
Until now.\u00a0 When the announcement that Rio would host was made, over 50,000 residents \u2013 known as cariocas \u2013 spilled out into the streets. \u00a0They unveiled a banner half the size of a football field that read, \u201cRio Loves You.\u201d \u00a0And what a party it promises to be: the Olympics in \u201cthe Marvelous City,\u201d the home of Carnival!\u00a0 Opening and closing ceremonies and the finals of \u201cthe beautiful game\u201d will take place at the Est\u00e1dio do Maracan\u00e3. \u00a0There will be volleyball, sailing, and other water sports along Copacabana Beach.\u00a0 Biking and running in the shadow of Christ the Redeemer. \u00a0Even the marathon will be festive, ending at a stadium called \u201cthe Sambadrome.\u201d\u00a0 Opa, caipirinhas all around!<\/p>\n
And the whole thing will be kicked off by Edison Arantes do Nascimento, who will almost certainly be chosen to light the Olympic torch.\u00a0 You may know him better as Pele, the greatest athlete of the past century.\u00a0 On that day in 2016, when he performs the final act in his miraculous sporting career, Pele will be 75 years old.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this month, when the International Olympic Committee was about to announce the location of the 2016 Summer Games, a very famous man flew to Denmark to help his country\u2019s bid. \u00a0This man, a descendant of slaves and a national icon, made an impassioned last-minute plea. \u00a0The IOC heard him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[931],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4","tag-pele-soccer-olympics-brazil-edison-arantes-do-nascimento"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}