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RIO DE JANEIRO – The Maple Leaf fluttered skyward as O Canada played in the athletes village, and for an hour on a breezy Brazilian Tuesday night, all the concerns about Rio seemed a million miles away for a group of young Canadians on the cusp of realizing a dream.

“I don’t think it’s totally set in,” volleyball star Gavin Schmitt said of finally being in Rio. “It’s slowly, gradually hitting us.”

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“Right now, everybody is happy,” said judoka Antoine Valois-Fortier, a bronze medallist at the 2012 London Games. “Everything is awesome.”

They were part of a gathering at the athletes village for the official welcoming ceremony of Canada, Angola, Malaysia and Fiji. Most of Canada’s 314 Olympians will call this armed fortress home for the next few weeks as they attempt to realize the country’s goal of winning at least 19 medals. Soldiers with automatic weapons stood at the entrance to the cluster of new high-rises. Military helicopters patrolled overhead.

But the major enemy for most athletes is distraction, and they’ve tried not to dwell on the stories making headlines back home — the ones about rampant street crime, terror threats, the Zika virus, shoddy construction.

Tennis star Daniel Nestor, a gold medallist in men’s doubles at the 2000 Sydney Games about to compete at his sixth Olympics, takes comfort in the scouting report provided to the athletes in an RCMP briefing upon landing in Rio.

“They’re very confident about everything, so that makes us confident,” Nestor told reporters over the din of his teammates attempting to samba at the welcoming ceremony. “They said this whole area — this bubble of the village, the venues, the stadium and all that — it’s the safest in the world right now. That makes me feel pretty good.”

Jen Kish, captain of the women’s rugby sevens team, said things have been “easy-breezy.”

“We’re making our world as small as possible,” she said. “We’re staying in our bubble, and we’re really focusing on the task at hand which is to perform on Aug. 6. I want the world to see what we’re capable of, and I want all eyes to be on us.”