Between the years 2008 and 2009, Argentinian Mario Cilenti travelled a distance of six and a half laps around the planet. He visited five continents and over 50 countries in 15 months. Mario spoke to heads of government, leaders of the Olympic Movement, athletes and other personalities. He had only one goal: to convince the world that Rio de Janeiro deserved to become the first city in South America to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

On 2 October 2009, the campaign promoted by Cilenti and all of the Bid Committee was awarded a historic victory. Rio 2016™ and the dream of its future Olympic and Paralympic Committees Director had materialized.

“I started participating as a volunteer at the 1995 Pan American Games in Mar Del Plata. I wanted to take part somehow in that important moment for my city at that time but I had no experience. I was a volunteer at the Canada delegation. I lived in Canada from 3 to 14 years old and realized that’s what I wanted to do. I later returned to Canada to have a paid job in the organization of the following Pan American Games, which was going to be Winnipeg 1999. In the end, I was invited to work at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and my career took off”, he recalls.

photo: Mario Cilenti is Director of the Rio 2016™ Organizing Committee (Photo: Rio 2016)

His 18-month experience in Australia enabled him to receive offers from several organizing committees around the globe. Cilenti opted for Manchester, UK, where The British Community Games were being held in 2002. Later, he returned to Canada to work for the Canadian Olympic Committee. An invitation by President Carlos Arthur Nuzman brought him to Brazil in 2004 for the organization of the Rio 2007 Pan and Parapan-American Games.

A multicultural team for a world of diversity

The Argentinian worked in the areas of Planning, Games Services, and later as General Deputy Secretary of Operation, which proved to be a key contribution to the success of Rio, deemed to be the best of all times. After the Games, he worked for the Brazilian Olympic Committee as Technical Director for the 2016 Bid and later as International Relations Director.

At the Rio 2016™ Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Cilenti’s mission is to cater to over 200 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and 170 National Paralympic Committees (NPCs). To deal with a multitude of cultures, languages, costumes, traditions and needs is the complex challenge the director will have for the next four years. That is before, during and after the Games.

“This functional area will be divided according to the five regions of the world. Each management will be responsible for a region. Each professional is expected to deal with 12 to 15 countries, a year before the Games. We will form a team of about 50 collaborators and over 1,200 volunteers. The number of volunteers assigned for each country will be defined according to the size of the delegation”, explains the director, who highlights the key role of the volunteer program.

“These volunteers are called ‘NOC assistants’. We will be having a multicultural team to deal with a world of diversity in terms of languages, cultures and demands. These people will have a six-month training, will learn all about the service chain, from transport to food, safety, sports and much more. The level of complexity is huge, for they will be dealing with the consumers. They will certainly have a very intense Games experience”, he adds.

A city called Olympic and Paralympic Village

Mario Cilenti is also responsible for the operation of the Olympic Village, which will also be the Paralympic Village in 2016. The director participates in the process from the drawing of the plans of the buildings with engineers and architects to the post Games. Still in the planning phase, the Olympic athletes’ accommodation operation will involve about 18,000 people:

“It’s a town with gigantic sizes of everything. It’s all multiplied by 18000. Think of a bed. We’ll have 18,000. Think of a pillow. It’ll be 18,000 pillows. Bed linen will account for twice as much. And the same goes for the National Committees. If you need to approve flags and anthems, we’ll have 200 of each. You have to plan for a 5,000 seat restaurant and a massive hospital. The buildings will be empty and we’ll be in charge of the entire setup”.

One of Rio 2016™’s key principles is to treat all with the same high level of services. Some countries will bring two athletes while others will bring delegations of over 500 athletes. The most sophisticated National Committees have begun their visits to Brazil to start planning and choose their training venues with the assistance of Cilenti’s team. Other organizing committees will come only in 2016 for the Games, or a year before, when the Rio 2016™ Organizing Committee will be promoting a visit by all of the mission leaders for a general assembly.

The huge challenge of uniting diversity in the Olympic Movement is a new experience for Rio, Brazil, and the South America that the director of relations with the world, a citizen without frontiers, has helped to conquer. For Mario Cilenti, the planet already knows. Dreams that come true are the specialty of the house.