RIO DE JANEIRO: The first sporting action of the 2016 Olympics started in a virtually empty stadium on Thursday as the Russian doping scandal rumbled on.
With the formal opening ceremony at the Maracana stadium just two days away, the women s football tournament started with a game between Sweden and South Africa.
There were just a few hundred spectators in the 60,000 Rio Olympic Stadium for the kickoff of the first of six games taking place across the country.
There should be a bigger crowd when hosts Brazil, led by Marta, make their bow against China at the same venue later in the day.
But tickets are available for many top Olympic attractions, including blue riband athletics races
The women s football tournament launches what Brazilian fans hope will be a golden campaign for their men s and women s teams, who have never won an Olympic title.
“Although people say we don t have to go and win the gold, for me, as someone who has played at other Olympics, won two silvers and come close to the gold, I think we are obliged to win it,” said Brazil striker Cristiane.
The first matches of the men s tournament will take place on Thursday, with Brazilian superstar Neymar spearheading the host nation s quest for a first ever Olympic gold medal — the only international title every to elude the five-time World Cup winners.
The advent of the first sport of the Games will come as a welcome diversion for Olympic chiefs who have been mired in the fallout from the drugs scandal involving Russia.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach on Tuesday called for wide-ranging reforms of the World Anti-Doping Agency while the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected appeals by 17 Russian rowers against their exclusion from the Games.
With appeals involving a dozen other Russian swimmers, wrestlers and weightlifters still to be decided, the row over state-run doping blamed on the Russian government threatened to overshadow Friday s opening ceremony.
The IOC chief said the Russia scandal, which he has described as “contemptuous,” had exposed deficiencies in WADA.
“Recent developments have shown that we need a full review of the WADA anti-doping system,” he told an IOC session that continued Thursday.
