From August 5 to August 21, 2016, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil will host the 31st Olympic Games. This Cidade Maravilhosa (“Marvelous City”) will be the first South American city to host the Summer Olympics; more than 10,500 athletes representing 206 National Olympic Committees are expected to compete at the Games. Kosovo and South Sudan will be sending athletes to the Olympic Games for the first time. Meanwhile, the United States anticipates sending a similar number of athletes as it did to the 2012 Olympics.

For the past seven years, Rio has been extensively preparing to host the world’s largest sporting event, with competitions in nearly three dozen venues. The Maracanã Stadium will host the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, along with soccer. The Copacabana Beach will host beach volleyball and part of the marathon, while the Olympic Training Center will host basketball, handball, judo, wrestling, and taekwondo. The Olympic golf course, which will offer men’s and women’s individual events, was recently completed in the Barra da Tijuca suburb of Rio. The city’s infrastructure is still undergoing extreme renovation as Rio is reviving its downtown waterfront, expanding its metro system, and implementing a light rail transit service in the heart of the city.

The Games will be granting medals in 306 events in 34 sports. Of these sports, two will be making their twenty-first century debuts: rugby sevens and golf. Men’s and women’s rugby sevens, a variant of traditional rugby where each team has 7 players instead of 15, will be the first rugby events at an Olympic Games since rugby union in 1924. Golf will return to the Olympic program for the first time since the 1904 Olympics in Missouri. The men’s and women’s events will feature the world’s top 60 players with no more than 4 per country. On the men’s side, Americans Jordan Speith and Rickie Fowler, ranked first and second in the world, will likely secure tickets to Rio. American women Lexi Thompson and Stacy Lewis, ranked third and fourth in the world, are also likely to qualify.

Swimming is one of the most prominent sports in the Olympic Games, featuring numerous world-class athletes. One of these swimmers is Michael Phelps. Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time with 22 medals and holds the record for the most gold medals won at a single Olympic Games after winning eight from the 2008 Olympics. The swimmer came out of retirement in April 2014 to pursue a fifth Olympics and is on track to qualify for the Olympic team. Swimmer Missy Franklin is also hoping to compete at another Olympic Games. At 17 years old in 2012, she won 5 medals and became a household name.

In the sport of artistic gymnastics, the U.S. is hoping to defend its title as the women’s team champion. The U.S. has been a consistently dominant force in women’s gymnastics, demonstrated by its wins at the team events in the 2014 and 2015 Gymnastics World Championships. American Simone Biles, who is widely regarded as the world’s best gymnast, is expected to become the women’s all-around champion. If Simone Biles wins the Olympic all-around competition, she would be the fourth American gymnast in a row to do so. However, 2012 Olympians Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman are also vying for spots on the Olympic team and could take the title. Although the US men’s gymnastics team is not as dominant as the women, they still are very strong and hope to medal in the team event.

Athletes from New Jersey are hoping to make a big impact during the Games. Notably, sabre fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad of Maplewood will be the first American to compete in a hijab at the Olympics. Muhammad hopes to medal and bring awareness to the sport.

Varsity sabre fencer Ellie McCarthy ‘17 comments, “Fencing usually isn’t televised during the prime watching hours, so you really have to search around, but that at the Opening Ceremony last Olympics, the sabre gold-medalist Mariel Zagunis was the flag-bearer [was] an awesome thing to see one of my idols on TV!”

Additionally, Tobin Heath, a soccer player from Basking Ridge, aims to win her third gold medal as part of the American women’s soccer team. Nick Sant Foster ‘18 proclaims that he is “very excited to see Ridge High School alumna Tobin Heath represent our country at the Olympics. She’s an excellent player, and I know she’ll be a great asset to the team.”

The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro are sure to be an exciting spectacle. Catch your favorite sports on NBC this August!