Torch begins final race to stadium from beneath Rio’s Christ

Olympic torch bearer Brazilian former volleyball player Maria Isabel Barroso Salgado (R) holds up the torch of Rio 2016 Olympic games with the City Mayor Eduardo Paes (L) and Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro Orani Tempesta in front of the statue of Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado Hill in Rio de Janeiro yesterday. The carnival capital of Rio de Janeiro will host a glittering Olympics opening ceremony party, hoping to draw a line under a turbulent seven-year build-up dogged by recession, drugs scandals, crime and infrastructure stumbles - AFP

Olympic torch bearer Brazilian former volleyball player Maria Isabel Barroso Salgado (R) holds up the torch of Rio 2016 Olympic games with the City Mayor Eduardo Paes (L) and Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro Orani Tempesta in front of the statue of Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado Hill in Rio de Janeiro yesterday. The carnival capital of Rio de Janeiro will host a glittering Olympics opening ceremony party, hoping to draw a line under a turbulent seven-year build-up dogged by recession, drugs scandals, crime and infrastructure stumbles - AFP

Reuters: The Olympic torch was raised before Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue on Friday on the final leg of its journey to the opening ceremony of the Olympics, as Brazil excitedly put the final touches to seven years of preparations.

At the evening ceremony in the famed Maracana soccer stadium, Brazil will declare open the 31st summer Olympic Games, the first to be held in South America. They run until Aug. 21.

Organizers hope the start of the Games will turn the page on months of bad publicity for Rio, from polluted water to faulty plumbing at the athletes’ village and worries about the Zika virus. Having won the Olympics in 2009 during an economic boom, Brazil since slipped into its worst recession in decades.

Former Brazilian women’s volleyball player, Maria Isabel Barroso Salgado, lifted the flame beneath the outstretched arms of the giant statue of Christ that overlooks Rio’s Guanabara bay.

“May this be the moment for us to overcome difficult times and to work as a team, to make our country and our world fairer and safer, full of hope and joy,” said Rio’s Archbishop Orani Joao Tempesta, flanked by Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes.

The torches’ 95-day, 20,000-km journey across Brazil ran into difficulties this week as protests flared in poor towns around Rio against the $12 billion price tag of the Games, at a time when residents are suffering from high unemployment, rising crime and cutbacks to health and education spending.