They were joined at the event which coincided with the Five Years to Go landmark last Friday (August 5) by Carlos Nuzman, the President of Rio 2016, and Natalia Falavigna, the 2005 world taekwondo champion and 2008 Olympic bronze medallist, and Joao Gabriel Schlittler, the 2007 world judo bronze medallist..

Located 300 metres from the Olympic and Paralympic Village, in the Barra area, the 123.000 metre Park is the result of a 44 million Brazilian reais ($18 million) investment made by the Municipal Government.

During the Games, it will be exclusively dedicated to the athletes' leisure and rest.

But up until 2016 the area will play host to a series of events beginning in September and October with the fourth Rock in Rio festival - previously held in the site where the Athletes' Village will be built.

Two subsequent editions of the festival are already scheduledfor the new site in 2013 and 2015.

After the Games, Rio inherit a new park after the Games, in an area devoid of recreational public spaces, officials claimed.


"This will be an area for leisure, rest and meditation that are so important to the athletes participating in the Games," said Nuzman, who was joined Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes (pictured) and Antonio Patriota, Brazil's Foreign Affairs Minister.

"We will carry out a survey of athletes at the London Games village next year to hear what they would like the Park to offer."

Paes claimed that the unveiling of the Park is yet another evidence that the Olympics are already transforming the city.

"The most important part of the Games is what they leave for the city," he said.

"And with five years to go to the Opening Ceremony, we are already giving Rio a new recreational area."

Marcio Fortes, the President of the Olympic Public Authority (APO), hailed the date as an important milestone in the preparations for the Games.

"This is yet another step forward in the work we have been doing," he said.

"I have already been meeting with all levels of the Games organisation so that other steps like this are taken."

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