Morning

It wasn’t raining today. Whooohoo!

I have a day off tomorrow and then 4 days left, so I decided to have my clothes washed for the last time. I found a really nice local laundry shop that is on my way to the arena. They are really nice there, even though mostly we communicate by body language. 😀

Once again there were a lot of people training on the beach. But one thing was different today, the waves were huge. It was a really cool sight to see them crashing into the sand. I don’t think that I have ever seen that big waves before.

The first games started at 11. As the weather was really nice, we also rolled up the table covers at the tribunes. This is a nice little task as it gives time to talk to the other team members and also managers. Rolling the covers doesn’t take much effort and then it is nice to hear about the lives of the other team members. (For example: Our press operations manager Alessandro is attending his 5th Olympics. Really cool!)

Right after the first game, I ran down to the media center to see the results of the disc throwing finals. I reached there just for the last round and it was really exciting. Too bad that we did not get a medal, but we were not far from it. 🙁

Games today

Brazil vs Spain men (Brazil won 2:0) – A very exciting first game. Also brought a full house at the tribunes. Both a lot of spectators and also journalists. Spain was fighting really hard, but Brazil was much much stronger.

Canada vs Canada women (Canada won 2:0) – 😀 It is funny to write. And to see how people cheered. There were still some Canadian fans that cheered for one team and not the other. 😀 But yes, it was a really short game. One team was clearly better than the other. At least they have 1 team in the quarter finals.

Germany vs Switzerland women (Germany won 2:0) – Good game, again a short one. Although there was a bit more action that in the previous game.

The painter

As I have written before, we have a painter at the tribunes. He is painting a picture of the venue (he did that for London 2012 too). It is looking awesome and in my opinion it will be done soon. Al though Alessandro (press operations manager) and Pedro (venue manager) told me that he might not be done anytime soon. He is even a bit short of time and hopes to be done before the games end. 😀

When spectators leave after the game, they walk past him and discover the painting. Some take pictures or just look and find it amazing. But there are also some that really want to talk with him. He doesn’t speak Portuguese and does not like to be disturbed while working. So in the end we were playing bodyguards to keep away the annoying spectators. 😀

We did talk about putting up a fence and a sign saying, “Do not disturb, genius at work.” 😀

Afternoon

I left a bit earlier today as I needed to pick up my laundry. (They closed at 5 and the place is not opened tomorrow.) Before I did that I also met up with an Estonian volunteer that gave me a TriotoRio shirt. As I am the only one going to the stadium for the marathon, it would be nice to have the shirt in camera. :D.

There are also others supporting our triplets, but they will be standing on the streets. So tomorrow morning at 09:00, I will be at the home of Samba cheering for our triplets. It is going to be exciting. This is my first Olympic event as a spectator.

Before I left my manager also asked to talk to me. They had some free tickets to different events and he wanted to know when I had a day off. I said tomorrow, but he didn’t have any tickets then. So I got 2 free tickets in the end – for men quarter finals in Handball on the 17th (hopefully Denmark is playing then) and womens wrestling on the 18th.

Really cool and excited to go see the events. This is their way of thanking us for doing a good job.

So, tomorrow morning I will be at the Sambodromo arena cheering for the marathon. Really exciting!

Some pictures of a broadcastin employee whose job I would not volnteer for 😀 Although the view must be amazing

And apparently the gay mascot of Rio 2016 (unofficial)