Global fast food chain McDonald’s will not have a restaurant in the Main Press Centre (MPC) at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the company has confirmed.
The American corporation, which became an Olympic sponsor for the Montréal Games in 1976 before joining on with The Olympic Partner (TOP) programme, usually cater for the press and media.
They had a presence at the MPC at the London 2012 Games and the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
The company has revealed that, while it will have a restaurant in the International Zone of the Olympic Village, there will be no McDonald’s in the MPC.
Journalists and other media will be catered for by a restaurant as well as a bar area, which will serve food when the restaurant is closed.
“McDonald’s will be at the Olympics as we have been for the past 40 years,” a spokesperson for McDonald’s said in a statement.
“We’re excited to build a restaurant in the International Zone of the Olympic Village, which is a central location open to athletes, their friends and family, and members of the media.
“We consider many factors when deciding where we will build restaurants, such as size and layout of the venues.
“We have 33 McDonald’s restaurants in Rio where Olympic events will take place and more than 100 restaurants in the Rio metropolitan area, which will welcome visitors from around the world as they travel from venue to venue.”
The McDonald’s at the Olympic Village will serve all of the usual classics as well as local Brazilian favourites like Pão de Queijo and the egg, cheese and bacon sandwich made to order with fresh cracked eggs.
They will also have a Dessert Centre at the Barra Olympic Park, which will provide local flavoured McFlurrys.
As part of the McDonald’s Olympics Kids Programme, children will be able to participate in the Opening Ceremony at Rio 2016, due to take place on August 5.
They will be joined by a gold-medal panel of ambassadors, featuring double Olympic champion gymnast Bart Conner of the United States and his Romanian wife Nadia Comăneci, who shot to fame by becoming the first competitor to record a perfect 10 score at an Olympics at Montréal 1976.
She won a total of five Olympic golds, securing a hat-trick in the Canadian city before claiming the balance beam and floor exercise titles at Moscow 1980.