Lula urges Brazil Olympic boost

By Gary Duffy
BBC News, Sao Paulo

Brazil's women won a rare gold medal, in volleyball

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said his country needs to take sport more seriously.

In his weekly radio address he called Brazil's Olympic performance as reasonable and voiced frustration over failure to win a football gold medal.

Brazil, where sport is a national passion, hosts the World Cup in 2014 and is one of four countries still in the bidding to host the 2016 Olympics.

It wants to stage the Games in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

There has been fairly widespread frustration that given its size Brazil did not bring home more medals from the Olympic Games.

In particular there was a high level of expectation that the national football team would take gold for the first time, and the disappointment was only added to by their defeat at the hands of long-time rivals Argentina.

Overall Brazil was ranked 23rd in the table of Olympic medals although there were some highlights, such as the first gold medal won by the women's volleyball team.

In his weekly radio address President Lula voiced frustration over the performance by the men's football team, who came home with a bronze medal, and it was clear that his hopes for the country were higher.

"You have to remember that Brazil took its biggest ever delegation to the Olympics including the biggest number of women athletes," the president said.

"I think Brazil's performance was reasonable. Obviously as Brazilians we want the country to win as many gold medals as possible - however others also wanted to win."

In total Brazil returned from the games with three gold, four silver and eight bronze medals.

President Lula said the country had to start taking sport more seriously, encouraging more investment by city and state governments as well as business people.

He said he hoped this would make Brazil more competitive for the next games in London and a leading force by 2016.