Gidabuday Sports Tourism Foundation (GSTF)

Pole vaulter Shawn Barber and his track and field teammates are an important team for Own the Podium's goal for 19 or more medals in Rio. © Kevin Light Photography The Canadian Olympic team is confident it can reach its goal of winning at least 19 medals at the Rio Olympics. "Our primary goal is to win more medals than we won in London (in 2012), so 19 or higher will achieve that important goal," Anne Merklinger, CEO of Own The Podium said Wednesday on a conference call. "Our ultimate goal is to finish in the top 12 in total nation medal counts," she said. "We know that every medal will matter and it is an extremely tight medal race." By top 12, Merklinger was referring to total medals, regardless of colour. The International Olympic Committee gives priority to gold medals in its standings, so Canada was nowhere near the top 12 in London with 18 total medals, but only one gold. The July version of the Virtual Medal Table, produced by Grace...

French intelligence has been informed of an Islamist militant plot to attack France's Rio Olympics team. Brazilian intelligence said they were unaware of the alleged plot France was informed by a foreign intelligence agency of a planned attack on its Rio Olympics team, the head of French military intelligence said. General Christophe Gomart, head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DRM), in May told a parliamentary commission investigating Islamist militant terror attacks in France in 2015 that a "partner agency" had informed them of the plot. According to a transcript of the hearing just made public, a Brazilian national planned the attack. No other details of the alleged plot were available. Wilson Roberto Trezza, the head of Brazil's intelligence agency, told reporters on Wednesday that neither France nor any other country had contacted his agency about the alleged plot. Brazilian Minister of Justice Alexandre Moraes said in July that a jihadi...

Katy Perry  has risen to the occasion The pop star released a new song, "Rise," at 11 p.m. ET Thursday. The track, which is available to download on  iTunes  and to stream on Apple Music, will be used as an anthem leading up to and throughout the 2016 Rio Olympics. "When, when the fire's at my feet again / And the vultures all start circling," she sings. "They're whispering, 'You're out of time' / But still I rise." "This is a song that's been brewing inside me for years, that has finally come to the surface. I was inspired to finish it now, rather than save it for my next album, because now more than ever, there is a need for our world to unite," the singer-songwriter told E! News in a statement. "I know that together we can rise above the fear—in our country, and around the world. I can't think of a better example than the Olympic athletes, as they gather in Rio with their strength and fearlessness, to re...

Tanzania Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Information, Culture,  Arts and Sports Hon Anastazia Wambura has today visited the National Olympic Training Camp located at West Kilimanjaro (Siha District)  near the Africa's Highest Peak Mt Kilimanjaro Tanzania will be sending the total of seven (7) ambassadors to the games, among them there are four (4) Marathon Athletes who are Alphonce Felix Simbu, Said Juma Makula, Fabian Joseph Naasi and the only woman in the Marathon team Sara Ramadhani Good Luck to them, let's pray for them; Go for the Gold, Go for the Medal  @ gidabudays

Usain Bolt will be defending three titles from London 2012 in Rio this summer Usain Bolt will defend both his Olympic 100m and 200m titles and the 4x100m relay title after being named in the Jamaica team for Rio 2016. There had been worries over his participation after he injured a hamstring at the national trials. The six-time Olympic champion - who is the 100m and 200m world record holder - is part of a 63-strong Jamaica team. Bolt, 29, was one of four athletes to be given a medical exemption to make the squad. He has yet to prove his fitness but confirmed on Friday he would compete  at the Anniversary Games in London on 22 July. Bolt sustained his injury - a grade-one tear - during the first round of the 100m in Kingston and withdrew after winning his semi-final. Source: bbc.com/sport/olympics @ gidabudays

Raquel de Oliveira, a publicist who lives in a building in front of Olympic Park in Barra, said bus routes have been changed, reportedly a security move to make it difficult for criminal gangs to access upscale areas during the Olympics. Picture: Renata Brito/AP But the poor say it’s come at a cost to them as some are pushed out of their homes to make way for Olympic infrastructure and buses are re-routed from slums to prevent those who live there from accessing “upscale areas”. The Olympics touch mostly the wealthy areas south and west of the city, where the real estate market was booming until a few years ago. But across town in crumbling, working-class areas, there are few signs that the Rio de Janeiro Olympics open in just a month. Rio’s northern favelas, the city’s infamous slums, underscore the vast gap between the rich and poor — the white, brown and black, in a divided city. About 10,500 athletes and up to 500,000 foreign visitors are expected to descend on the cit...

Amnesty has noted a rise in police violence since April. After pledging to pacify the favelas, is a new policy undoing years of hard work? Security at the Olympics will see 20,000 national guard, army and navy personnel alongside 65,000 police officers. Photograph: Xinhua/Rex Shutterstock T he archbishop of  Rio de Janeiro  was on his way from the Christ the Redeemer statue to the airport when his journey was interrupted by a gunfight that erupted on either side of the road. For 10 minutes, Cardinal Orani João Tempesta sheltered on a kerb behind his chauffeur-driven car as police and gangsters traded shots that crackled through the lofty, leafy neighbourhood of Santa Teresa. “People were scared of stray bullets,” he recalls of the incident last month. “And there was a sense of disappointment that the city should not be this way.” Such experiences and sentiments are all too common in Rio, the Olympic host city, where violent crime has long been a feature of the socia...