Carioca Arena 3 in the Rio 2016 Barra Olympic Park is due to play host to the official weightlifting test event for Rio 2016, the South American Championship, from April 7 to 10. 

This follows the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Powerlifting Americas World Cup, set to take place in Carioca Arena 1 from January 20 to 23.

Weightlifting and powerlifting competitions are both scheduled to be held in the Riocentro exhibition and convention centre at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which run from August 5 to 21 and September 7 to 18 respectively. 

And speaking to insidethegames here at the 2015 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships, Meloni insists preparations will be stepping up a notch from here on in.  

"We’ve been planning the Games since 2012," he said.

"When London’s flame was fading, we had already started our planning.

"So plans have been refined time after time and reviewed again, and again, and again.

"And I think that now it’s time to operate - it’s time to execute the plan.

"They say that in war and in life planning is essential but plans are useless.

"We’ve done our planning - now it’s time to execute.

"It’s now time to go to the field and make things happen, to get the volunteers on board, to get the rest of the team on board, to interact with people in Brazil and make it work."

Meloni is here to observe the presentation of weightlifting with the view to improving that at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Although he’s looking to bring new dimensions to the presentation, Meloni is keen to take acknowledge the tradition of weightlifting, which has been contested at all but three of the Summer Olympic Games since their inception in 1896.

"The sport has its rules and the rules are there to be respected - the rules are what make this sport," he said.

"Once you’re not stepping on the rules, you can then experiment.

"The IWF has been very supportive on that for us.

"They’re very supportive on trying new stuff, while respecting the tradition of weightlifting as a sport.

"We have to respect a sport that has more than 100 years in the Olympic Games and also we have to reinvent the sport at every Olympic Games and that’s what we’re doing."

It is expected that a total of 45 test events will have been held prior to the Olympic and Paralympic Games as part of the Aquece Rio programme. 

Meloni is confident the Games will be a success, despite Rio 2016 director of communications Mario Andrada confirming last month that the budget will be cut by as much as 30 per cent amid Brazil's ongoing financial crisis. 

"My general impression is that everything is running well," he added.

"We’re facing the normal challenges for every Organising Committee and we’ll deliver a fantastic Games with Brazilian flavour."

The ongoing World Weightlifting Championships are the first to come to the United States in 40 years and form part of the qualification process for Rio 2016.



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