Rio de Janeiro’s renovated port area should be hopping — or “hooping” — during the Olympics.
The US men’s and women’s basketball teams are to stay on a cruise ship in the port. A second and much larger liner is to be anchored alongside during the Games and provide lodging for what officials term the “Olympic Family.”
The NBA is also expected to set up a “hospitality house” in the port area.
Photo: AP
“We’ll have two cruise ships in the port,” Rio de Janeiro State Tourism Office secretary Nilo Sergio Felix told reporters. “There will be one with the basketball players and the other for Olympic people. These are the only two we expect.”
The ship housing the basketball stars is to be the relatively small Silver Cloud operated by Silversea Cruises, which bills itself as the “Leader in Luxury Cruising.”
The company lists the ship’s capacity at 296 with a tonnage at 16,800. Its last cruise is in the Mediterranean in June before heading for the Olympics.
The “Olympic Family” is to stay on the cruise ship Getaway operated by Norwegian Cruise Lines. The company listed the capacity at 4,000 guests and tonnage of 145,655. It is one of the world’s largest cruise ships.
Craig Miller, a spokesman for USA Basketball, the national governing body, declined to confirm where the two basketball teams would stay.
He listed security as a reason for not disclosing the location, but said the men’s team stopped staying in the Olympic Village beginning with the 1992 Olympics — the first appearance of “The Dream Team.”
“We don’t stay in the village because we don’t feel it’s the best way to prepare for competition,” Miller told reporters. “The players have a long professional season and they want to spend as much time as possible with family and friends.”
Miller said it was always difficult during the Olympics to find lodging for the large US basketball delegation. The teams stayed in hotels in London and Beijing and on a cruise ship in Athens in 2004 — the Queen Mary 2.
He said USA Basketball picks up the costs of the lodging, an expense that would be covered primarily by Games organizers if players stayed in the village.
Miller said that tall players have the same problem no matter where they stay.
“You face the issue in a hotel, or you would face it in a village: The beds aren’t made for 7-foot [2.13m] players,” he said. “These guys live on the road and they figure out ways to sleep. Sometimes I’ve seen them put their luggage at the end of the bed so their feet can rest there.”
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