The goggles were a virtual reality device, the ski slope was imaginary, the snow artificial – but it really was Thomas Bach crouching with his old fencer’s instincts as he sampled the technological wizardry within the Pyeongchang 2018 House at Cobacabana beach.

For the beleaguered President, this was a welcome if not exactly relaxing time out from the heavy duties of office in what has been a deeply troubled and troublesome lead up to the Rio Games now underway.

The assertions now surfacing that the rocks which the IOC had insisted were responsible for the apparent bullet holes in the windows of a media bus on Wednesday might indeed have been bullets will have done nothing to ease the President’s cares.

From a PR point of view, it was particularly bad luck for the IOC and the Rio Organising Committee that a female journalist travelling on that bus should have been ex-US military with a very thorough knowledge of firearms.

"I know what a gun sounds like," said Lee Michaelson, a retired US Air Force captain who now writes about women's basketball.

Bach at the beach - the President was led past a series of displays showcasing the technological advances and traditional culture of Korea. The murmured words “Very nice” came in extremely handy, as did the observation, entirely correct: “Korean food…very nice.”

After an exchange of speeches with Pyeongchang 2018 President Lee Hee-beom, Bach’s tour concluded with an entertainment involving participants in traditional Han-bok dress break-dancing to a tune based on a Bruno Mars song.

Clutching a multi-coloured fan to help ward off the heat rising from the Copacabana sand beneath the soles of his polished shoes, Bach looked faintly surprised.

Speaking a day away from the 550-day countdown to the Opening of the 208 Winter Games, Lee had said: “The eyes of the world will be upon us - our preparations, our calculations, our technology and our successes.

“And you can be assured we will do our best to give you an incredible Winter Games in 2018.

And Bach had responded: “With this Korea House I think you have managed to present a miracle because you are bringing the snow and ice from Pyeongchang to the sun and sand of the Copacabana.

“The displays you have here provide a unique experience for visitors and show your success in innovating for the Winter Games.

“You are setting the stage and making the important steps towards a very successful Winter Games in Korea in 2018.”

It was one of the myriad such exchanges which take place away from the principle arenas of action within a Games - the Olympic version of courtly love.

Love of a different kind was to be witnessed later on that day, just a few blocks away from that Copacabana winter wonderland at the Bayt Qatar - that is, Qatar House, Rio base for the nation that will hold the International Association of Athletics Federations’ World Championships in 2019.

There was no mistaking the emotion on the faces of nine young Brazilian athletes – all of whom are booked for a training trip in November to Doha’s Aspire Academy - as they received the surprise gift of tickets for the August 16  athletics programme from Dr Thani Al Kuwari, Secretary General of the Qatar Olympic Committee.

“It is a dream for me, because I wanted to be a spectator at these Games,” said 21-year-old 400m hurdler Paola Rosa, who was one of those chosen from around 200 local competitors from disadvantaged backgrounds to become part of the QOC’s Shine project and travel to Qatar with Brazil’s Arnaldo de Oliveira, the Olympic bronze medallist and founder of Futuro Olimpico, who partner on the project.

One of the 10 athletes (aged 16-24) was absent from this tour of Qatar’s interactive exhibitions of its culture and history  - Cristiane dos Santos is preparing for these Games as part of Brazil’s 4x400m squad.

Gabriel Oliveira Constantino might very well have joined her at the Games – this amiable 21-year-old has a 100m best of 10.33sec and won the Brazilian 110m hurdles title in June in 13.50. Which was 0.03sec off the Olympic qualifying time.

Standing in the main lounge of the Casa Daros, the city’s museum of Latin American art which has been temporarily transformed into a kind of hi-tech soukh, Constantino nodded gravely at the suggestion, through an interpreter, that it must have been very frustrating to have missed out on the Games so narrowly (sorry Gabriel, but I had to ask…)

“Multo, multo, multo,” he said, the light glinting on the stones of the ear-studs he sported on both sides. He added that the November trip had given him something positive to look to beyond the Games.

Constantino is certainly not letting his disappointment dampen his ambitions: “I want to gain as much knowledge as I can at the training camp,” he said. “I would like to compete at the Olympics and to win a medal. I would like to be recognised all over the world.”

Unsurprisingly, his favourite athlete was one Usain Bolt.

Constantino’s  talent has already taken him to meetings in Europe and the United States, but most of these young athletes have never been in a plane to anywhere.

Raymeson Silva, a 21-year-old 200m runner, smiled broadly when asked if he had been impressed by the facilities on offer at the Aspire Academy, which numbers Mutaz Barshim, the second highest high jumper of all time, among its alumni.

“Seeing this makes me really excited to be going,” he said. At the end of a week already packed with acrimony, controversy and doubt, it was refreshing indeed to witness an aspect of these Games which was so unequivocally a good thing.