RIO ORGANISER IS A SON OF IZAAK

GETTING the Rio Olympics under way has been the culmination of years of painstaking work by Carlos Arthur Nuzman, President of the Brazil Olympic Committee since 1995 and head of the Rio Organising Committee.

“I’m the proudest man alive,” said Mr Nuzman last Friday during the opening ceremony. “The best place in the world is here and now.”

Mr Nuzman, the son of Izaak Nuzman, a former president of the Rio Jewish community, has devoted much of his life to the Olympic movement. He represented Brazil in volleyball in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, and sat on the IOC from 2000-2012.

Mr Nuzman, a lawyer, said: “My

connection with Judaism and with Israel is through sports. I started my career playing at the Brazilian Israelite Club and I have attended four Maccabiah Games in Israel.”

The last few years have been difficult for him, with the rush to get the facilities ready on time, concerns over the Zika virus, and the criticism that the Olympics are a luxury Brazil cannot afford. However, Mr Nuzman insisted that the games were a huge boost for the country’s image.

Other members of Rio’s 40,000-strong Jewish community also hold senior positions — Sidney Levy is the Rio 2016 Committee’s CEO and Leonardo Gryner the Deputy CEO.