Venues

The 2016 Summer Olympics to be held in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro will use numerous venues to host the mega event. The layout of the venues for the Olympics and the Paralympics will be divided into 4 distinct zones; Deodoro, Barra da Tijuca, Copacabana Beach and Maracana.

Apart from the Maracanã stadium, the Olympic football fixtures will be taking place in the Morumbi Stadium of Sao Paulo, Mineirao Stadium of Belo Horizonte, National Brasília Stadium of Brasília and Bahia Arena of Salvador. All the Olympic football stadiums, except the Morumbi Stadium, will also be used for the FIFA World Cup in the year 2014.

The track and field events will be held in the famous Estádio Olímpico João Havelange in Rio de Janeiro. The swimming, diving and water polo events will be held at the Maria Lenk National Aquatic Center. The Copacabana beach will be used to host the beach volleyball, triathlon and marathon swimming events, whereas Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas will be used to host the canoeing and rowing events.

Sports

The 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics will feature a total of 28 sports. Initially, there were 2 spots available for the inclusion of new sports and a total of 7 sports began bidding for inclusion. The applicants included, golf, squash, karate, roller sports, softball, baseball and rugby. They hosted presentations in front of the International Olympic Committee in the year 2009. The IOC approved rugby sevens, which is a 7-player version of rugby, thus eliminating roller sports, baseball and squash from consideration. It went on to choose golf from the remaining three sports- golf, softball and karate.  Therefore, the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Olympics will witness rugby sevens making its Olympic debut and golf making a comeback to the Olympics after 112 years.