February 2024

Rio de Janeiro inaugurates the Isabel Salgado Olympic Educational Gymnasium, the first sports arena in the history of the Olympic Games transformed into a public school. This installation is part of the 2016 legacy, which includes the delivery of four new schools built from the dismantling of the Arena of the Future.

The City of Rio has made history by transforming an Olympic arena into a public school for the first time. On 5 February 2024, the Isabel Salgado Olympic Educational Gymnasium (GEO) was inaugurated in the Barra Olympic Park, in the West Zone. The Isabel Salgado Educational Gymnasium (named after one of the greatest Olympic and volleyball athletes in the world) has become the largest school in the municipal education network, serving approximately one thousand students and is made up of 24 classrooms, a multipurpose room, a support room educational facilities, cafeteria, kitchen, changing rooms and bathrooms, as well as sports facilities with two courts and places for athletics, badminton, cycling, fencing, Greco-Roman wrestling, chess, volleyball, beach volleyball, and table tennis.

On 6 February, two of the four schools built from the Arena of the Future, using the concept of nomadic architecture, were inaugurated. And in March, two other schools created  from the dismantling of the arena will be handed over to the population. All were built in the West Zone, the most socio-economically challenged in the city. To learn more about the transformation of Rio’s Olympic venues  into schools and public facilities, click here!