Rio Olympics 2016 News and Update: USA Basketball Team to Stay Aboard Luxury Ship, Bulletproof Fence and Hundreds of Federal Police Deployed
Top NBA players and members of the USA Men's Basketball team will find themselves comfortable in a luxury cruise ship instead of the Athlete's Village once the 2016 Rio Olympics commence on Saturday, August 6.
Rio Olympics organizing committee has already allocated several lodgings in the Rio Village to accommodate multi-national delegations, although rumors about minor problems like broken showers and beds too small for taller basketball players as well as major issues like lighting issues and theft have been reported.
Both the USA Men's and Women's basketball teams have decided instead to reserve all the 196 cabins in the luxury cruise ship Silver Cloud and convert it into a temporary floating "US embassy" while playing for the Olympics.
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This is not the first time for the men's basketball team, made up of 12 highly compensated NBA stars, since they also stayed in a cruise line during the 2004 Athens Olympics. The incident since then became an unwritten tradition for these high-profile players to demand top-notch accommodation ever since professionals were allowed to play in the Olympics in 1992.
Meanwhile, the Maua port terminal operations director Alexandre Gomes is confident that they can properly look after the players since the site went through major renovation prior the Olympics. There are also several giant screens where people can watch the events and other Olympic-related entertainment.
The authorities assured tight security as well and 250 federal police officers is to be deployed in the port to provide a 24/7 watch. In addition to the security personnel, a fence made of bulletproof material was installed to discourage the public from getting too near the US athletes as well.
Silver Cloud is to anchor far from "common" cruise ships that will dock to visit Rio and there are also two boats which will routinely patrol around to prevent people from navigating near the vessel.
Meanwhile, there are several attempts to contact the USA Women's Basketball Team to inquire about their lodgings and accommodation but team officials state that they are following security protocols about divulging information concerning the whereabouts of their players even if it is confirmed that they are staying with the men's squad.
