Full coverage: 2016 Rio Olympics

Today marks the 100-day countdown until the start of the Olympic games in Rio De Janiero. On August 5, the opening ceremony will take place in the famous Maracana stadium to mark the start of the global show piece that will include 28 different events with 306 medal up for grabs.

It was seven years ago that then IOC President, Count Jacques Rogge, announced the city as the winning bid to host this year's summer games with the organization’s delegates voting in favor of the Brazilian city 66 to 32 over Madrid. Chicago and Tokyo also had hopes of hosting but were eliminated after the first round the selection process.

A lot has happened since then, as the first ever summer Olympic ever host in South American’s countdown clock reaches 100 days today. Infrastructures wise, Barra da Tijuca will host most of the venues of the Olympic and Paralympic games. The open water events will featured in the beautiful Copacabana Beach. The rest will be located in two other zones of the host city, Maracana and Deodoro. while Barra da Tijuca will also house the Olympic village. Additionally, some football games will take place at five venues in the cities of Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Brasilia and Manaus. 

And two new sports will be featured in Rio; first the golf is returning after a 112-year absence, and also a new event rugby sevens, meaning a seven-player version of rugby union-by a majority vote by the IOC executive board in 2009, removing baseball, roller sports, and squash from contention.

Record numbers of countries are participating in a record number of sports. More than 10,500 athletes from 206 national Olympic committees, including first time entrants Kosovo and South Sudan.

Because of the European migrant crisis and other reasons, the IOC will allow athletes to compete as independent Olympians under the Olympic Flag. In the previous Olympic games, refugees were ineligible to compete because of their inability to represent their home NOCs.