SPORTS

Rio's Olympic planning chief says deadlines 'very short'

The Associated Press Published Monday, January 13, 2014 11:37AM EST

In this photo released by Rio 2016 Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, youths form the number 1,000 to mark the number of days before the start of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games inside Mangueirao stadium in Belem, Brazil, Friday, Nov. 8, 2013. (AP / Alex Ferro, Rio 2016 Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games)

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- The army general appointed three months ago to co-ordinate planning for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics says his job is like "changing a tire on a car that's moving."

Major General Fernando Azevedo e Silva, named by President Dilma Rousseff to head the Olympic Public Authority, acknowledged in an interview published in a Sao Paulo newspaper Monday that deadlines are "very short" to prepare South America's first Olympics.

Silva's word will catch the attention of new International Olympic President Thomas Bach, who is to meet in Brazil next week with Rousseff, Rio organizers and local government officials.

With less than three years to go, preparations for the Rio Games remain dogged by construction delays, financial uncertainties, environmental worries and possible public protests.