Rio Olympics set for opening ceremony

 

All are set for official opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil.

The opening ceremony is at midnight on Friday night at the Maracana Stadium but the action kicked off two days ago with the women’s football.

Athletes from 206 nations and a refugee team are in Brazil to compete in 28 sports and be watched by a global audience of billions.

There will be 10,500 athletes from a record 207 teams competing in Rio, including the Refugee Olympic Team, while it will be the first time Kosovo and South Sudan have taken part in the Games.

An estimated three billion people will watch the ceremony, which has taken five years to produce and includes 300 dancers, 5,000 volunteers and 12,000 costumes.

These are the Games of the 31st Olympiad but are the 28th to be held as those in 1916, 1940 and 1944 did not take place because of war.