This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Rio Olympics got off to a shambolic start on Saturday with fans queuing for hours to enter arenas and some missing their events as many athletes competed in front of eerily empty stands.

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Games organisers apologised for dropping the ball on the first day of full competition, the morning after a dazzling opening ceremony, as iconic venues such as Copacabana beach for the beach volleyball saw only a few hundred spectators.

Outside, lines stretched for several blocks as angry fans stood in the scorching sun, waiting as security staff struggled to cope.

“Indeed we have problems in some [security checkpoints] in the Olympic Park and we apologise for everybody standing in line outside the venues,” the Games spokesman Mario Andrada told reporters. “We need to upgrade that part of the Games. We moved people from Rio 2016 [organisation] to speed up the mag and bag [security checks] and within the next hours we will be in much better shape.”

Andrada said that he hoped no fan had missed competitions for which they had bought tickets, but many Brazilians were left fuming.

“I don’t believe it. It’s absurd, ridiculous,” said Natalia Carvalho, 28, a Rio resident who had wanted to see the Brazilian gymnast and medal hopeful Arthur Zanetti compete.

Instead she entered the stadium only after he had finished his rings presentation with thousands more waiting to enter the Olympic park, the site of several events.

“I always said that what I most wanted to see was Zanetti in the rings. It’s a lack of respect for the fan that bought tickets. It’s a shame,” she said.

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Games organisers blamed the situation on a lack of coordination between various groups of security personnel, including the police, Games staff and private security firms.

What should have been a celebration of the start of South America’s first Olympics instead turned into a damage‑control operation, with Andrada vowing an immediate improvement. “It is the first morning of the Olympic crowd and some of the systems did not talk to each other,” he said.

“It was a problem of coordination. We need to explain to the public. We owe them an explanation and we owe them an excuse.”

Only a few hundred spectators made it into the gymnastics arena, which can seat 13,500 people. There were also many empty seats at the boxing venue on Saturday morning as the first professionals in Olympics history entered the ring. Handball and hockey matches also experienced far from full stands.

“We hope to clear the lines in the Olympic park,” Andrada said, admitting that some people had waited as long as 90 minutes.

“We feel sorry for the people who are there. Some time in line is acceptable but there needs to be a balance.”