Riocentro is an exhibition and

convention center A convention center (American English; or conference centre in British English) is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typica ...

located in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Built in 1977, it is the largest exhibition center in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

Notable events

1981 May Day attack

On April 30, 1981, during a

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Festivities may also be held the night before, known as May Eve. Tr ...

music concert, Riocentro was the target of a terrorist attack by hardliner members of the

Brazilian military dictatorship The military dictatorship in Brazil ( pt, ditadura militar) was established on 1 April 1964, after a coup d'état by the Brazilian Armed Forces, with support from the United States government, against President João Goulart. The Brazilian dic ...

(1964–1985). Sergeant Guilherme Pereira do Rosário and then-Captain Wilson Dias Machado, nowadays a Colonel, were responsible for detonating two bombs at the venue. Around 9 p.m., however, one of the bombs exploded in the lap of Sergeant Rosário, killing him and seriously wounding Machado. A second bomb exploded a few miles away at a powerhouse responsible for providing electrical energy to Riocentro; it was thrown over the fence and exploded on the ground, and the electric power supply was never interrupted that evening. The government immediately blamed left-wing radicals for the attack. This theory had no support at the time of the event and nowadays there is strong evidence that the attack was planned by the hardline sector of the government to convince the moderate sector that the left-wing urban guerrilla was still active and that a new wave of political repression was required. This episode marked the decline of the military regime in Brazil, which would officially end four years later.

Earth Summit

In 1992, Riocentro hosted the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

Earth Summit The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Conference or the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to June 14, 1992. Earth Su ...

Sports events

In 2007, Riocentro hosted a variety of events for the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is hel ...

in several pavilions. Capacity of the pavilions ranges from 2,000 people to 4,500 people. When Rio was bidding for the

2016 Summer Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

and

Paralympics The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaired ...

which it won in October 2009, four of its six pavilions were proposed as venues. During these games, Pavilion 2 hosted the Olympic

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

competitions, Pavilion 3 hosted the

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

and

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

table tennis competitions, Pavilion 4 hosted the

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

competitions, and Pavilion 6 hosted the Olympic

weightlifting Weightlifting generally refers to activities in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells or barbells. People lift various kinds of weights for a variety of different reasons. These may include various types of competition; pro ...

and Paralympic

powerlifting Powerlifting is a strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift. As in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, it involves the athlete attempting a maximal weight single-lift effo ...

events. During the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from ...

, Riocentro was utilised as the headquarters of the

International Broadcast Centre The International Broadcast Centre (IBC) is a temporary hub for broadcasters during major sport events. FIFA World Cup During the 2006 FIFA World Cup, in Germany, the IBC in Munich was host to journalists from around 190 countries. The centre wa ...

(IBC). In November 2022, the arena will host the Challengers Stage and the Legends Stage of the IEM Rio Major 2022, the eighteenth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Major Championship.

References

External links

Official websiteRio2016.org.br bid package.
Volume 2. p. 18. {{Pan American Games venues handball Indoor arenas in Brazil Venues of the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic badminton venues Olympic boxing venues Olympic table tennis venues Olympic weightlifting venues Venues of the 2007 Pan American Games Sports venues in Rio de Janeiro (city) Convention centres in Brazil Boxing venues in Brazil Handball venues in Brazil Barra Olympic Park Event venues established in 1977 1977 establishments in Brazil Pan American Games handball venues Sports venues completed in 1977