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Francisco Leong / AFP - Getty Images
Revelers dance during a party at Casa Brasil in London on Sunday night. Rio de Janeiro will host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Updated at 4:47 a.m. ET: LONDON -- A few miles from London's Olympic Stadium, partying Brazilians gathered Sunday night to watch the closing handover ceremony on giant screens -- and to contemplate the work ahead of them before the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Organizers of Rio 2016 have been spreading their buzzwords of "passion" and "embrace" but after a London 2012 Games that has been praised for its smooth delivery and the triumphant sporting achievement of the host nation's athletes, they are already under scrutiny.
With music and cheekiness, 'happy and glorious' Games close
Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, on Sunday urged Brazil to do everything it could to ensure a better performance in four years’ time after the country came 22nd in the medal standings with just three golds.
“You need gold medals, that is so important for the mood of the public and the general atmosphere of the Games," he told a press conference.
"We had to wait a few days for the first bronze, but from then on you couldn’t follow the pace,” he said about the British team’s results. “We’re relying on exactly the same [from] our Brazilian friends.
Michael Regan / Getty Images
Brazil's 'cidade maravilhosa' (marvelous city) steps into the international spotlight as it prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Explore some of the sights the city offers.
“If you want a good result in Rio 2016, it’s time to start and kick off as soon as possible,” Rogge added, noting the U.K. had won just one gold medal at Atlanta in 1996.
What has Rio learned from London 2012?
As London officially handed the Olympic baton to Rio at the closing ceremony, Brazilians and other revelers gathered at "Casa Brasil" -- a temporary promotional space for Rio 2016 at London's historic Somerset House -- to watch the event on giant screens.
“It’s a time to show your city, show your culture. I hope Rio can have a ceremony like that as well,” said Joao Brasil, 34, a DJ who has lived in London for three years but plans to return to Brazil for the soccer World Cup in 2014 and the 2016 Olympics. He said being in London for 2012 Games had been “amazing.”
Ian Johnston / NBC News
Joao Brasil celebrates London's Olympic handover to Rio at a Brazil-themed party near the River Thames on Sunday night.
"The party is beautiful it is really exciting to be here before being in Brazil, in Rio… It’s really emotional actually.”
London 2012: Who were the real winners, losers?
He said British friends had been unimpressed before the start of the Games, but had been swept away in the wave of enthusiasm that hit after they actually started with film director Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony.
While Brazil only earned three gold medals, Brasil said they had only narrowly missed out on a number of others. And even if Brazil did not do well in 2016, he said the people would still be enthusiastic hosts.
“It’s going to be wild,” he said.
He was among a crowd watching the ceremony in the courtyard of the grand 18th-century building, overlooking the River Thames, which was flooded with light in the green, yellow and blue colors of the Brazilian flag.
Alastair Jamieson/NBC News
Richard Pope (far left) and his wife Penny (far right) visited Casa Brasil in London on Sunday with Penny's brother Jim (second from right) and his wife Sue (second from left) with their children Ralph, 6, (front left) and Daisy, 8, (front, right) and their friend Kit Simmons, 10 (front center).
Brazilian music, including an appearance from Brazilian Beatles tribute band called Sargento Pimenta, added to the carnival atmosphere. When the handover ceremony was complete, flags proclaiming 'Welcome to Rio' were unfurled from the roof of the building and the crowd began to dance wildly and wave Brazilian flags.
'The world is going to embrace Brazil'
Danilo Costa, 28, a lawyer originally from Sao Paolo, now living in London, said he had initially been “skeptical” and “worried” about the Brazilian section of the closing ceremony, but had been won over.
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Click for more from the 2012 summer games in London.
“I’m much more impressed by what they did, than what the British did in Beijing,” he said. “I think that was really good, I’m really impressed.”
”I think the world is going to embrace Brazil… and have lots of fun,” he added.
Olympic jokers: Queen has 'a laugh,' empires compete
Costa said he thought the Games would enable his country to show its true nature to the world.
“We can benefit a lot from this. It looks like our image abroad is a lot worse than the reality,” he said.
Alastair Jamieson / NBC News
Children play in the fountains on Sunday afternoon at Casa Brasil, the temporary exhibition space set up at London's historic Somerset House to promote the forthcoming Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Nicole Spinelli, 24, from Sao Paolo, Brazil, who has been studying for a finance degree in London, said she was “very excited” about the Rio Games, providing it was as well organized as those in London.
“If they can keep it organized and things can run properly, we will enjoy the party, otherwise it’s going to be a mess – without any party,” she said.
Read more London 2012 coverage from NBCNews.com
Fellow finance student Rosemary Fernandes, 30, from Santa Katarina, Brazil, said she hoped Rio 2016 would have as good an atmosphere as the London Games, saying “people were cheering all the world,” not just the British athletes.
On Brazil’s sporting performance, she added, “they didn’t do well here so hopefully they will do better in Brazil.”
Alastair Jamieson / NBC News
Brazilians in London celebrate the Olympic handover at the Casa Brasil exhibition space near the River Thames on Sunday night.
Earlier in the day, Rio 2016 officials were on hand to explain their Games bid, and to sell Brazilian culture - - including free yellow Olympic T-shirts -- to lines of tourists and curious British Olympic spectators.
“I don’t think there will be any empty seats at Rio,” said Philip Nagenda, who toured Casa Brasil with friends after watching his native Uganda beat Kenya in the men’s marathon final in central London. “I think people are very passionate there and will turn up.”
Alastair Jamieson / NBC News
Philip Nagenda, Jospeh Kiwalabye and Ronald Mukasa from Uganda, Martin Kimani from Kenya and Fabrice Jean from Canada try out one of London's free bicycles while wearing promotional Rio 2016 shirts outside Casa Brasil in London on Sunday.
His friend Ronald Mukasa, also from Uganda, said: “I think Rio will be more colorful, maybe have a bit more character than London – but it will be hard for them to get the transport as good. Everything has been well organized in London.”
Olympics chief touts women's access to sports
Jim Armitage, from Reading, Berkshire, said: "I think Rio will be spectacular but London has so many historic and symbolic venues, such as the beach volleyball in Horseguards Parade. I know Rio has the Christ statue and Copacabana beach but I think London will be a very hard act to follow."
His wife Sue added: "I hope Rio is able to recreate the great sense of excitement and involvement in the Games, particularly with screen so you can follow all the action. We were at the sailing in Weymouth [on England’s southern coast] and watching Andy Murray win gold at the tennis on the screen and it felt as if we right were at Wimbledon, too.”
As the Olympics come to an end in London, there are the 2014 Sochi Games in Russia to look forward to. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.
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From what I read Brazil's biggest challenge will be to keep the power on since they have had issues with roving blackouts. Start getting the grids in shape, beautiful place to have an Olympic setting.......
And that Mitt Romney, is how the Olympic Games are done!
London and England got it Right,
you got it wrong!
and you were an Embarassment and a complete Moral Failure when you were overseas.
You a small-petty man.
Thank God President Obama will be our President for the next Four (yes! 4) more years.
And London did it, without destroying the Financial records of their Olympics like you did.
and London didn't have to Hide their Olympic profits in Hidden Swiss Bank accounts.
and London didn't have to Laundry their Olympic profits thru phony Cayman Island shell-companies.
And the English people didn't have to "Retire RetroActively" from Bain Capital to Avoid Criminal Felon charges.
Yes Mitt Romney, you're a small-petty man!
Stop making this so political. Can't we have a normal news article comment board that doesn't refer to politics.
He's a socialist, what do you expect!
To RepublicansforOdumbo: Just a note no "true" Republican would vote for Obama, no "true" Republican would write those lies and no "true" Republican would make the Olympics political. My suggestion to you would to be to get a life.
Now all you Climate change\global warming fans out there explain to me this... How much of a carbon footprint does all this leave on the planet. HMMM? You can't be fans of Bread and Circuses and fans of wasteful spending and pollution both. Appears many on here would like to have their cake and eat it too, and this includes MSNBC as they profit from the Olympics. What a bunch of hypocrites.
Hear that giant sucking sound London and Rio??? That's your tax dollars going to pay for this big "party". The ONLY people who profit for the games are the IOC and the contractors who built the facilities. The London Olympics are at 20 Billion $ last time i checked and that total will only go higher.
I believe you could have built a Velodrome, an indoor pool, and some public housing for about 1/100th the cost. there was no need for a new stadium, i think Britain has a few of those already. All the rest is security and fluff.
It should be a gorgeous setting indeed.So much diversity in nature to see.Since it will be a better time zone as well hopefully more Americans will enjoy watching the games. I'm looking forward to discovering more about the country's sites myself.I had a friend who spent two years there and he had lots of stories about its food and huge insects!
gee mitt, i don't know...how do YOU think it went?
congrats gb. looking forward to an exotic opening ceremony in brazil!
It wouldn't surprise me if the Catholic Church is trying to have Brazil hang the Olympic Rings from Giant Jesus.
Hopefully the Spice Girls won't be at the next Olympics. How *LAME* !!
I didn't watch any of the Olympics!!
Too bad Marie, some of us are just plain boring and apathetic!
Neither did I what a waste of time and energy to promote "Nationalism" as the world heads towards "Globalism". A bunch of meaningless hoopla but great entertainment for the masses of TV zombies out there living vicariously through someone's achievements. And yes will some of you are apathetic to things that really matter.
After watching almost 7 hours of Rory McIlroy's fantastic PGA win in Hialeah Island, SC and then "Hell on Wheels and Breaking Bad" there was no time left for the Olympics.
Thanks for beating Chicago out Rio.
Golf sucks.
2016 will be the year of the Latin Olympics, but sadly it will also be the year that Jeb Bush tries to pass himself off as the first Latino nominee of a major US political party.
It will be FANTASTIC! Rio is a beautiful place to visit! Brazilians love sports, a nice party and play host... get prepared for a great time 2016 Olympic Games in RIO....
What happened to the Who?? I watched this whole flaming bunch of crap waiting for Townsend & Daltry. Apparently they played, but NBC didn't air "My Generation" or anything from the real band. Mitt was right, they didn't have their act together.
Some NBC idiot thought to break up the ceremony by airing a dumb sitcom between segments. The Who & the fireworks came back on an hour later. NBC totally blew it!
NBC blew the closing ceremony AND blew it by not showing COUNTLESS events/ finals live, like they should have. Oh, right, I can go online and watch the live streaming...
NBC really dropped the ball with these Olympics.
This was an extraordinary sporting event and an excellent closing celebration ceremony. Thank you Britain and thank you athletes from around the world. I glad to see the world can live at peace for a little more than two weeks without religious zealots killing innocent women and children to show their religion is the best!! Long live the Olympics. The only thing missing was "The Who" that the broadcasters said would be playing after the protocol events. In spite of the misstep, it was great. Peace.
NBC really screwed up by breaking up the closing ceremonies to preview a stupid sitcom. Completely ruined the ending. When they came back, the only things left were The Who & the fireworks, why couldn't they have just waited 10 more minutes? They should have shown it in it's entirety. NBC royally screwed up!
Haven't you heard? The ceremony was over about 10 hours ago.... you're just watching it now and NBC still fcked it up for you ?? What else is new....
NBC chose not to show Ray Davies, ELO, Kate Bush, Muse, and The Who closing out the Olympics in order to show Animal Kingdom? That show is awful, quit after 5 minutes. NBC screwed it up because they wouldn't show it live. Americans were forced to watch the edited version during primetime.
That said, I'm not sure how many people in the world are going to understand that Brazil inspiration with Eric Idle
Please, spell São Paulo correctly.
Thanks for screwing The Who, NBC...seriously, wtf?
But, seriously, can someone explain to me - why is everyone talking Rio, shouldn't the flag have been passed onto Russia?
The Winter Olympic flag was already passed to Russia during the closing ceremonies for the last Winter Games. Rio had the summer games flag passed to them
.
Please, spell São Paulo correctly
From what I hear the London Olympics is spectacular, too bad I can't see it that way since NBC fck43d it up, royally in the A$$!!! From having virtually nothing shown live when they could easily do it from the morning hour to the deplorable crap they say "available online". Yes, available when you are among the elite citizen that paid for the programming tier that contains CNBC and MSNBC..... Well I just happen to be paying for the tier that has CNBC but not MSNBC, I am not about to fcking upgrade my programming just to see something that should be available for free to the whole country in the first place. NBC has done a great disservice to all the athletes and to the sports in general, it basically took the country 20 years back to the times when nothing can be shown live on TV and expect you to take it, ROYALLY, FROM BEHIND AND LOVING IT!!!
If that is your biggest problem to get emotional about, I want your life.
Everytime I tuned in, all that was on was f%%king BEACH VOLLEYBALL. Get rid of that "sport". Winter games are better anyway.
This may be off topic, but, ss a man, people expect me to love beach volleyball, and granted, many of the girls have great bodies.
But really, why do they have to wear those ridiculous bottoms? If you want to be taken legitimately as an athlete, then don't go along with the peep show outfits. Every time i tuned in there was some bum chewing bikini's being pulled out after every point. How is this comfortable?
These women allowed themselved to be objectified- I'd like to see a team member speak up about it.
Thanks posters, especially dustoffdaughter. I thought maybe I had missed something. We had several amber alert break ins during the show, but none were long enough to miss even a brief Who appearance. Yep, I'll skip the politics of it, and blame the media which carries the same sentiment. I hope NBC never has the privilege of airing the Olympics again. The over-the-top show could have been saved by Pete & Roger blaring out My Generation.
Oh well, college football starts in three weeks. Roll Tide. And I believe an election is approaching. In a rare moment of seriousness, I do want to congratulate our Olympians, they made us all proud.
NBC should never have mentioned the Who were scheduled. I hope they catch hell for that, you hear me Costas?
Just glad they kept Elton out of it.
NBC chose not to show Ray Davies, ELO, Kate Bush, Muse, and The Who closing out the Olympics in order to show Animal Kingdom? That show is awful, quit after 5 minutes.
That said, I'm not sure how many people in the world are going to understand that Brazil inspiration with Eric Idle
Well, I just hope enough people write and let NBC know how much they blew this one. Animal Kingdom will be dead on arrival on my TV. Ray davies too? Man they blew this one. The only thing worse would have been a successful bid by Obama to bring the circus to Chicago. The most dangerous city we have, even worse than New Orleans now.
I only hope that NBC won't be doing this again. What a sorry coverage of these olympics.
Agree... NBC sucked the big one.
I have always wanted to visit Rio, I think I will.
Speaking from experience, the Brazilians definitely know how to throw a party! However, I wonder if they can get the crime under control so that the Olympics won't be ruined for the visitors. The police in Brazil are one of the biggest problems when it comes to crime, so who's going to be watching the hen house?
The Brazilian people are outstanding! Rio-16 will be a party to remember. As for London, it was a total success. As I watched the Olympians from around the world, I realized that the future is in good hands with the young people from every corner of the globe.
Please...You base the future of the world on Athletes???? Wow.
"Brazillians party in London? Man that's a lot of people!" - Dubya
They're forgetting that Brazil has the 2014 World Cup too. They don't have much time to get things in order for a lot of world attention!
Just what the world needs. Another Olympics in a third world country where the people would cut your throat for a dollar. Where bands of abandoned children the roam the streets. Where corruption is the norm with anything you do.
Brazil's economy is hotter than a two-bit pistol. They have a vibrant democracy. You don't know much about anything, do you?