Some of Brazil’s best athletes were among the first 10 people in the South American country to carry the Olympic torch, which arrived in the capital city of Brasilia from Switzerland on Tuesday morning, beginning its journey through the country.
The Olympic flame began its 95-day journey through over 300 of Brazil’s cities and the relay will come to an end at the Olympic Games official inauguration ceremony which will take place at the Maracana Stadium on 5 August in Rio de Janeiro.
Two-time Olympic volleyball champion at Beijing 2008 and London 2012, Fabiana Claudino, received the torch from the hands of Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff at the Planalto Palace.
The second torch bearer, Arturo Avila Cordeiro de Melo, was the first Latin American to win the fields medal, considered the Nobel Prize of mathematics.
Among others, Angelo Assumpcao (artistic gymnastics) and Adriana Araujo, who won Brazil’s first Olympic medal in women’s boxing with a bronze medal in the 60 kg category at London 2012, were also among the privileged few that were chosen to carry the torch at the start of its journey in the South American country.
The torch will pass through more than 300 towns and cities in the Latin American country from the Amazon to Brazil’s southern border, before arriving at the Maracana Stadium in Rio on 5 August.
(With inputs from IANS.)
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