Brazil’s Rio state seeks emergency funding ahead of Olympics

Just under 50 days before the Olympics, Rio de Janeiro’s state governor has issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency that authorizes additional funding to fulfill obligations during the games.

A severe economic crisis has prevented the state from “honoring its commitments to the organization of the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” reads the order, released in the official government gazette Friday.

The crisis has been “causing severe difficulties in the provision of essential public services and can even cause a total breakdown in public security, health, education, mobility and environmental management,” the order reads.

With just 51 days to go until the 2016 Olympic Games gets under way, organizers have revealed to the world the medals that Usain Bolt and co. will be battling it out for in Rio de Janeiro.

A grand total of 2,488 medals will be on offer to athletes at the Games, which run from August 5 to August 21, with 812 of those gold, 812 being silver and 864 bronze.

Weighing in at 500g, the medals have been made with "sustainability at their heart," according to organizers, while they feature a design that "celebrates the relationship between the strengths of Olympic heroes and the forces of nature."

The gold medals are free from mercury, with the silver and bronzes having been produced using 30 percent recycled materials, while half of the plastic in all of their respective ribbons come from recycled plastic bottles.

The designs on the medals feature laurel leaves -- a symbol of victory in ancient Greece -- surrounding the Rio 2016 logo, while the other side boasts an image of Nike -- the Greek goddess of victory -- with the Panathinaiko Stadium and the Acropolis in the background.

The Paralympic medals were also revealed and have a tiny device inside which makes a noise when it is shaken, allowing visually impaired athletes to know if they are gold, silver or bronze -- gold has the loudest noise, with bronze the quietest.

All medals are slightly thicker at their central point compared with their edges, and the name of the event for which the medal is won will be engraved by laser along its outside edge.

"Today marks the start of the final countdown to the first Olympic Games to be staged in South America," International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said at the launch event in the Barra Olympic Park in Rio.

Rio 2016: Olympic Games medals revealed

Prev Next

Though the order is meant to open the door for more funding for the Olympics, scheduled to run August 5-21, it did not specify where the additional money would come from or how much would be needed.

The city of Rio de Janeiro – not the state – is largely responsible for the Olympics. But the state is responsible for certain expenditures, including a yet-to-be-completed extension of a Metro line that is meant to connect the largest of four Olympic venue clusters with the rest of the host city.

The state’s declaration will have no negative impact on the games, Rio 2016 organizing committee spokesman Mario Andrada said, according to the state-run news outlet Agencia Brasil.

“The games, they are guaranteed and will happen,” Andrada said.

Worst recession since the 1930s

For months, Brazil has been struggling with its worst recession since the 1930s. The country’s economy, the largest in Latin America, shrank 5.4% in the first quarter of this year, according to government figures. The oil-rich state of Rio de Janeiro has been especially hit by falling commodity prices.

Acting Gov. Francisco Dornelles told reporters Friday that money allocated through the state of emergency would go to security, mobility and health care.

Agencia Brasil quoted the governor as saying that the low price of oil played a role.

“I want all the people of Rio de Janeiro to understand that the state is experiencing a major financial crisis,” Dornelles said, according to Agencia Brasil. “There was a problem in the oil sector; there was a problem of economic recession, with our steel industry, with our automotive sector.

“We lost a large collection from the ICMS [tax on circulation of goods and services]; we lost a lot of royalties from oil; and this public emergency measure has aimed to draw attention of every citizen to the financial difficulties experienced by the state. “

The World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) new report is the latest twist to hit the Russian doping scandal, building on Professor Richard Mclaren's initial findings, published in July, which concluded doping was widespread among Russian athletes.

More than 1,000 Russian athletes across 30 sports -- including football -- benefited from state-sponsored doping, according to the latest report.

The doping program, across summer, winter and Paralympic sports, was in operation from 2011 to 2015, said Mr McLaren, who presented his latest findings at a news conference in London Friday.

WADA's initial report on alleged widespread drug use in international athletics concluded that senior figures including IAAF president Sebastian Coe (pictured) "could not have been unaware of the extent of doping."

Former WADA president Dick Pound chaired a press conference held in Munich on January 14, 2016 to present the 89-page report. It said "corruption was embedded" and "cannot be blamed on a small number of miscreants" within the IAAF.

A report by the IAAF's ethics committee claims a powerful trio blackmailed Russian distance runner Lilya Shobukhova into paying them off to keep results of her positive drug tests secret.

Russia's former athletics president Valentin Balakhnichev, its ex-chief coach for long-distance athletes Alexei Melnikov and former IAAF consultant Papa Massata Diack have all been banned for life. The report said "far from supporting the anti-doping regime, they subverted it." The IAAF's former anti-doping director Gabriel Dollé has been given a five-year ban.

The report claims Balakhnichev, Melnikov and Papa Massata Diack "conspired together ... to conceal for more than three years anti-doping violations by an athlete at what appeared to be the highest pinnacle of her sport. All three compounded the vice of what they did by conspiring to extort what were in substance bribes from Shobukhova by acts of blackmail."

Pound produced an independent report in November 2015 which detailed systemic doping in Russia along with an establishment effort to cover it up. He recommended Russia be banned from athletic competition, which it duly was by the IAAF.

The findings uncovered a "deeply-rooted culture of cheating at all levels" within Russian athletics. Asked if it amounted to state-sponsored doping, Pound told reporters: "In the sense of consenting to it, there's no other conclusion."

The report suggested the London 2012 Olympics -- in which Russia won 24 gold medals and finished fourth -- was "in a sense, sabotaged by the admission of athletes who should have not been competing."

Pound's report detailed "corruption and bribery practices at the highest levels of international athletics," evidence of which has been given to international crime-fighting organization Interpol for further investigation.

Senegal's Lamine Diack, former president of the IAAF, is being investigated by French police over claims he accepted bribes to defer sanctions against drug cheats from Russia. French prosecutors claim he took "more than €1 million ($1M)" for his silence. Diack has yet to comment.

Coe, a former Olympic gold medalist, has come under fire for his praise for predecessor Diack, whom he called the sport's "spiritual leader" when he took over the role in August 2015. He told CNN he would "do anything to fix our sport."

Athletics in crisis

Prev Next

Andrada, the Rio 2016 spokesman, said the declaration might help the state receive federal funds.

“The Metro (extension) is not ready, and the state has said repeatedly that it needs resources. I think everyone realizes that the decree is likely to pave the way for the state to get these resources [from the federal government],” Andrada said, according to Agencia Brasil.

On Twitter, the mayor of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, seemed to distance the city from the state’s move.

Paes tweeted that Rio was in “absolute fiscal and financial comfort.”

Pointing out that the city is responsible for the arenas and legacy projects for the Olympic Games, he said most of those have been delivered.

“The state of calamity decreed by the state government in no way delays the deliveries of Olympic commitments made in Rio,” Paes tweeted. “Besides, on the issues of security, where the mayor’s office is not responsible, we are certain the partnership with the federal government will work. Therefore, I renew here the confidence that we will hold exceptional Games!”

The governor’s order ends a week that saw Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, meet with Brazil’s Interim President Michel Temer in Rio de Janeiro. Both men confirmed that preparations were on track for the opening ceremonies on August 5.

Temer said this week that the federal government is willing to assist the state government, but he did not offer specifics.

CNN’s Shasta Darlington contributed to this report.