Rio Olympics 2016: Pele missing Opening Ceremony, torch-lighting

The Rio Olympics are getting close to kicking of — at least in terms of their Opening Ceremony, since technically they’ve been going on for a couple of days now.

Given that this is Brazil, and soccer is one of the country’s most-celebrated sports, it of course feels easy to assume that someone like Pele would be present to assist in the torch-lighting for the country, similar to how Muhammad Ali famously participated in the ceremony in Atlanta as one of the greatest athletes in American history.

Unfortunately, a new post from the Associated Press (see below) makes it clear that he is not going to be able to make it to the ceremony due to poor health. As an outside observer, our hope is that the Games will still find a way to honor him, especially in the country that helped to make him such a star.

We’ll get a chance to see shortly just how Brazil opts to handle their Opening Ceremony, and we are certainly planning a wide array of coverage for it tonight — including our take on some of the performances, and a piece of two about the parade of nations that is coming up. One of our favorite parts of the Games is spotlighting the countries who have just a few representatives. These are the countries who are ultimate underdogs, and it is easy to root for these people almost no matter where you are in the world.

Of course, we’re not a sports site, so we’re going to try to look at most of the Olympics through a TV-focused lens.

Want to get some other news when it comes to the Rio Olympics? Then be sure to head over here right now, or sign up over here to get some other TV news on all we cover, sent right over to you via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Rio 2016.)