Empty seats greet low-key start to Rio Games

TUSSLE: Goalkeeper Roxanne Barker of South Africa and Fridolina Rolfo of Sweden in action in the women's first round match at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday. (Reuters)

RIO DE JANEIRO: Sweden’s women claimed the first victory of the Olympic football tournament 1-0 over South Africa as Rio 2016 got off to an underwhelming start on Wednesday.
The sight of vast swathes of empty seats at the 60,000-capacity Olympic stadium in Rio will have embarrassed organizers at the first action of the Games.
Nilla Fischer bundled home the only goal of the game after South African goalkeeper Roxanne Barker fumbled a cross to give the Swedes a perfect start.
A much bigger crowd is expected at the same venue later Wednesday when hosts Brazil take on China in the other game in Group E.
Both the men’s and women’s football tournaments are being staged in six cities across Brazil that also hosted the 2014 World Cup.
World champions and four-time gold medalists the United States begin their campaign later in Belo Horizonte against New Zealand before Colombia and France also face off in Group G.
Two-time world champions Germany are expected to sweep aside Zimbabwe in their Group F opener.
2015 World Cup quarterfinalists Canada and Australia complete a busy first day of action in Sao Paulo.
Supermodel Gisele Bundchen, samba dancers and possibly football great Pele in a star role will embody Brazil’s multicolor glory at the Olympic opening ceremony Friday.
Rio has a hard act to follow after London 2012’s alternately humorous and jaw-droppingly sophisticated version.
This opening ceremony, held in a country suffering its deepest recession in almost a century, will be more modest.
Co-artistic chief Fernando Meirelles, who directed the hit movies “City of God” and “The Constant Gardener,” has said his budget is a fraction of the London splurge.
But organizers promise to keep the more than 70,000-strong crowd in Rio’s legendary Maracana stadium and the estimated three billion people watching it on television at the edge of their seats.
If Beijing 2008 was ostentatiously lavish and London quirky, Rio will try to capture Brazil’s amazing diversity, love of music — and talent for fun.
“We want to have the biggest party there has ever been in this country,” co-artistic director Daniela Thomas says.
No one does big outdoor parties better than Rio — think of the annual Carnival — and music is at the heart of that.
Along with thousands of athletes parading behind their national flags, as well as a contingent of refugees, there’ll be hundreds of performers from a dozen local samba schools singing and dancing in wild costumes.
Two icons of Brazilian popular music, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, will feature. On the more contemporary side, there’ll be rappers and baile funk star Anitta.
Leaks from a closed-doors dress rehearsal on Sunday promise a run through the transformation of Brazil, including a light show to recreate the Atlantic Ocean crossed by Portuguese colonizers, depictions of slavery, a recreation of aviator Santos Dumont’s flight in the plane 14 Bis, and the founding of cities.
Another heavyweight theme in the show, which starts at 8:00 p.m. (2300 GMT) and lasts roughly four hours, will be global warming and Brazil’s crucial role as home to the Amazon rainforest, reports say.