With 500 days to go until the start of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the head of the local organising committee has pledged that the games would be the impetus for the biggest urban transformation of any Olympic city.
Carlos Nuzman's comments came a day after Rio's mayor added his voice to the chorus of public officials who've expressed doubts about the completion of a promised cleanup of the city's sewage-and rubbish-filled waterways, which has been touted as an enduring legacy of the games.
Speaking at a news conference, Nuzman brushed aside repeated questions about the stalled cleanup of Rio's blighted Guanabara Bay, where the Olympic sailing events are to be held, insisting that routes would be up to standard for the competition.
Nuzman hailed Rio's urban mobility projects, as well as the ongoing renovation of the city's derelict port region, saying they would help forge a Rio before the games and a Rio after the games. He also insisted the Olympic infrastructure projects were on schedule and under budget.
Rio's Olympic project has come under fire from a range of activists, from environmentalists furious about the failed water cleanup and the construction of the Olympic golf course inside a nature preserve, to others angry about the forced evictions of slum dwellers to make way for new expressways and residential towers.
Nuzman countered the criticism by saying that Rio would emerge from the games more changed even than Barcelona, the 1992 host city, or 1964 host city Tokyo.
"Rio will be the Olympic city with the greatest transformation," he said, adding that the people "are the ones who will get the most out of" the games.
Asked how this urban transformation would be measured and compared with that of prior host cities, Nuzman responded that it was self-evident.
"It's very clear, and it's the opinion of many people," he said. "Rio's a completely new city, completely different."
He insisted that the waters of Guanabara Bay would be safe for the athletes, who have been sounding alarm bells about possible health and safety hazards. Many sailors have voiced concerns about possibly falling ill from the spray of the fetid waters or potentially catastrophic crashes with floating garbage.
"They (the state government) are doing it, giving their best, making the effort" to clean up the bay, Nuzman said.
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