Barra Olympic Park

. The site of the Barra Olympic Park was formerly occupied by the Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet, also known as Jacarepaguá. It was a former Formula One circuit that hosted the Brazilian Grand Prix on a number of occasions throughout the 1980s, before the Grand Prix went back to its original home at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, Interlagos, in 1990. Jacarepaguá was partly demolished to make way for the City of Sports Complex, a cluster of three venues constructed for the 2007 Pan American Games, held in Rio de Janeiro. The venues consisted the Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, which held diving, swimming and synchronized swimming events, the Rio Olympic Arena, which held basketball and artistic gymnastics events, and the Barra Velodrome, which held track cycling and speed roller skating events. Construction of the City of Sports was not without setbacks – the original plan for the complex called for a large-scale entertainment complex, valued at R$ 500 million and contracted to private firms for construction. These plans, however, fell through, and a smaller-scale plan for the complex was adopted instead. Opposition efforts by preservationists of the Jacarepaguá, the unsuitable soil at the construction site and numerous strike actions by workers delayed the venue's construction, which initially planned to begin in 2005, but was delayed until mid-2006. thus the Rio Olympic Velodrome, built immediately west of the Rio Olympic Arena, was conceived, with the Barra Velodrome being demolished in 2013. Other new venues constructed for the Olympics include the Carioca Arenas, the Olympic Tennis Center, and the temporary Olympic Aquatics Stadium, built on the site of the former Barra Velodrome, and Future Arena venues. Domestic broadcaster Rede Globo constructed a studio for its coverage of the Games in Barra Olympic Park. ==Venues==

. ;Current • Carioca Arena 1: basketball, wheelchair basketball, and wheelchair rugby (capacity: 16,000) • Carioca Arena 2: wrestling, judo, and boccia (capacity: 10,000) • Carioca Arena 3: fencing, taekwondo, paralympic judo, and paralympic fencing (capacity: 10,000) • Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre: diving, synchronised swimming, water polo (capacity: 5,000) • Olympic Tennis Centre: tennis, wheelchair tennis and 5-a-side football (capacity: 10,000; Main Court) • Farmasi Arena: gymnastics and wheelchair basketball (capacity: 12,000) • Rio Olympic Velodrome: track cycling (capacity: 5,000) ;Former • Barra Velodrome (capacity 5,000) • Future Arena: handball and goalball (capacity: 12,000) • Olympic Aquatics Stadium: swimming, synchronised swimming, water polo play-offs and paralympic swimming (capacity: 15,000) File:Arenas Cariocas (2).jpg|The three Carioca Arenas (3, 2 and 1 on top) File:Arena do Futuro Rio 2016.jpg|Future Arena File:Maria Lenk Aquatic Center.jpg|Maria Lenk Center File:Esportes Aquáticos Rio 2016.jpg|Aquatics Stadium File:Tênis Rio 2016.jpg|Olympic Tennis Center File:Arena Olímpica do Rio.jpg|Rio Olympic Arena File:Rio2016 julho ParqueOlimpico Barra 012 8301 -c-2016 GabrielHeusi HeusiAction.jpg|Rio Velodrome ==Legacy==

After the conclusion of the games, the site was repurposed to become the Olympic Training Center, a sports training facility operated by the Brazilian Ministry of Sports. The Olympic Aquatics Stadium was dismantled and its parts were used in the construction of two new swimming venues on the site - both 50m pools with capacities for 6,000 and 3,000 spectators, respectively, with other pools being donated to various projects around Brazil. Carioca Arena 2 became a campus of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology, serving 1400 students, while Carioca Arena 3 became a sports training school, with space for 5000 full-time students. In addition, Future Arena was dismantled for its materials to be used in the construction of public schools across Rio de Janeiro city, and the Rio Olympic Velodrome now houses the Rio Olympic Museum. In 2017, it was announced that the Olympic Park will be the permanent site of the Rock in Rio traditional international music festival. During the games, the Olympic Way was used to connect pedestrians to major venues in Barra Olympic Park. In 2024, the walkthrough was revitalized as the Rita Lee Park. ==See also==