The beaches of Copacabana got an American import for the Summer Olympics - the Today Show.
Matt Lauer, Hoda Kotb and Meredith Vieira hit the northernmost edge of the beach to add some American flavor to the Brazilian beaches. Staffers were out front recruiting audience members until they had enough to fill up the front row of the group.
Earlier in the week, there were supposedly not enough Americans in the crowd so they put up signs in hotels and asked random people to come enjoy the show live.
Some of the audience members on Friday included gymnast Simone Biles' older brother Ron and rower Devery Karz' parents Rob and Linda. The crowd also included married couple George and Candace James of Philadelphia, where George had surprised his wife with a trip to the Olympics for her 40th birthday.
While walking to the Today Show, I again realized how much of a federal presence is in Rio. There are federales at every street corner and they lined the halls of the Cidade Nove station heading to the Opening Ceremony.
I've noticed that the Federal Police of Brazil nametags also include their blood type, which I found extremely interesting. What use could there be for publicly displaying that type of information?
Now that the Games have started, the streets and public transportation are completely packed. The lines are long and very disorganized, so it will be intriguing to see how the much stronger the federales' presence will be.
