Welcome to Barra! 

It might not be as storied as Rio ’hoods like Copacabana and Ipanema, but Barra da Tijuca is one of the city’s swankiest. It’s being called the Heart of the Games by organizers, because it’s home to the Olympic Park. 

The Numbers 

The housing complex at the Olympic Village is made up of 31 buildings with 17 floors each, split into a variety of two-to-five-bedroom apartments. It seems spacious, but it must accommodate 11,000 athletes and 7,000 sup-port staff.

Last-Minute Tune-Up

A vast training center is equipped with almost 1,000 strength and cardio machines, and a nearby clinic houses a cryotherapy, massage, and rehab facility big enough to treat 100 athletes at a time.

Try Again

Rio already had a velodrome before it won the Olympic bid, but the UCI declared it unfit for competition. The construction company hired to build a new one declared bankruptcy 67 days before the opening ceremony, however, making it one of the last venues to be completed.

Throwback

The , where the gymnastics and wheelchair basketball events will take place, is one of only two venues in the Olympic Park that predate the 2016 Games. Built for the 2007 Pan American Games, it has hosted NBA events, UFC bouts, and concerts by Iron Maiden and Miley Cyrus.

For the Children

The , or Future Arena, where the handball and goalball competitions are scheduled to be held, will be dismantled and transformed into neighborhood public schools.

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Six athletes on the USA Track and Field team will compete at the Paralympics this September in custom carbon-fiber wheelchairs dreamed up by . The team has worked with Olympians before; they built sensors for long jumpers to check their form and delivered the lightning-fast two-man bobsleds that enabled the United States to break a six-decade medal drought in Sochi. But this is their first time tackling a wheeled rig. To do so, they rethought it from front to back. “The ideal is that the wheelchair disappears,” says asso­ciate ­director Brad Cracchiola, “and it’s just the athlete.” 

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BMW decided to upgrade the chassis from aluminum to carbon fiber for the same reason pro cyclists pre­fer it: with the improved strength-to-weight ratio, you can cut flab without sacrificing durability. 

Cheat the Wind 

Since carbon molds into virtually any shape, engineers spent months testing prototypes in a computer-­simulated wind tunnel to arrive at the perfect, sleekly aerodynamic design. 

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The steering and braking systems aren’t just tuned for ­precision ­handling. They’re also constructed of lightweight carbon and 3-D-printed parts, fabricated in aerodynamic shapes to help reduce drag.

Bespoke Fit

Racers need to keep their bodies firmly anchored, so that no effort is wasted shifting weight or cor­recting angles. The team at Designworks­ made a 3-D scan of each of the athletes, then built custom seats for them.

Stiffen Up 

Wheelchair ­racers don’t so much grab and turn the wheels as punch them. With that much force applied, any flex translates into wasted energy, so BMW maximized the frame’s rigidity to handle the ­additional load.

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