The reporters of the ANOC press service, Shushanik Hakobyan and Varvara Hayrapetyan, will be keeping a “BLOG-diary” during the Rio Olympics where they will represent the most interesting episodes of the 31st Summer Olympics leaving behind the curtain. Besides, the official news the readers of armnoc.am will have an opportunity to see and hear everything that is going on during the main sporting event.

The arrival

Yerevan-Moscow-Lisboan-Rio de Janeiro route lasted 28 hours but after years of following the dream, 28 hours seemed a moment.

The way was long but expected, tiring but there is no place for fatigue in a job done with love. The first thing at Rio airport was the registration and activation of our accreditations.

The airport was full of things symbolizing the Olympic Games but we didn’t hurry to do shopping because everything is still ahead.

The first impression

The capital of the Summer Olympics is a seaside city, the air is humid and at first glance it is rather difficult to breathe. The humidity is everywhere. On the way from the airport to the hotel we were briefly told about Rio de Janeiro.  Did I say “we were told about’’? Let me make a correction, we were frightened. “There are many thieves here. Many people are poor. We were advised not to walk alone outside, not to show our mobiles, not to keep much money, not to wear jewelry and the most important, not to go to favelas. But in reality the picture wasn’t so terrifying. Rio is not a standard city. Here you can see extremely poor and rich people living side by side separated by walls and barbed wire fences. Despite the extremes people here are very warm and smiling. They are really happy. Rio has two poles – the favelas and the rich accommodations. But if you are not at the Olympic village, at media center, maybe, you won’t notice that the Olympic Games are being held here.

The fruits

Brazilian fruits are worthy of special attention. Before coming to Brazil we promised ourselves to taste everything possible. We haven’t regretted yet. To come to Brazil and not to taste mango, papaya, marakuzha, bananas, karambol, guava and dekonde will be simply a sin. Everything is still ahead…

The media village

The village is rather far from the Olympic village, about 30-45 minutes by bus. Actually it is quite inconvenient for us. There are many volunteers who are eager to help everyone. To tell the truth, few of them speak English but we often understand each other, we speak Armenian or English and they – Portuguese. The apartments designed for journalists are built in a new district. Here a three-bedroom apartment costs 750.000 reals that is equivalent to 250.000 American dollars. Besides the distance, the media village has many other problems too, connected the pipes, electricity which is only 110 volts and other facilities.

The Olympic village

These days the brightest spot of Rio de Janeiro is the Olympic village. Here are the most famous athletes of the world. All the buildings are covered with various flags. Life is in full swing here. In the coming days we will present in more detail the life of the village.

The Olympic venue

The Armenian athletes will be mainly competing in Barra. Today we got acquainted with some of the structures of this venue. The last, preparatory works were in an active phase.  Now it is relatively calm. The holiday will begin tomorrow when the Games will be officially opened.

A few hours later, Rio will become the center of the sporting world…

God willing that in our farewell articles we will write about the award of the second Olympic champion of 25-year-old, independent Armenia.

The official website of the NOC of Armenia doesn’t take responsibility for the notes of the “BLOG-diary”.

The articles of the “BLOG-diary” cannot be re-published.

Shushanik Hakobyan

Varvara Hayrapetyan

From Olympic Rio