Rio Olympics kicks off this weekend

The wait is finally over as the Olympic Games officially kick off this Friday.

A total of 137 Olympians from South Africa will look to secure medals in Rio de Janeiro with the likes of Akani Simbine, Cameron van der Burgh and Keagan Dolly all in good form.

Artistic gymnast Ryan Patterson will kick things off in the gymnastic men’s qualifications on Saturday afternoon.

The 22-year-old is the only South African who qualified in this category and will be looking to bag SA’s first medal at the games.

Both the men and women’s Olympic road race will take place on Saturday. The women’s cycling will be shown around 17:00 on SuperSport on SS6.

Ashleigh Moolman Pasio and An-Li Kachelhoffer will represent the country in the women’s category while Daryl Impey and Louis Meintjes feature in the men’s category.

On Sunday, both the men and women’s football teams will be in action as they hope to qualify for the quarterfinals.

Banyana will look for redemption when they battle China in their second game of the 2016 Olympic Games. They went down 1-0 to Sweden in their opening game of the tournament.

The men’s football team will play against Denmark on Sunday.

London Olympics gold medallist Van der Burg will look to dominate once again as he represents the country in the 100m breaststroke on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.

On Tuesday, he will compete in the 200m breaststroke aiming to qualify for the final round.

Sunday will see Chad le Clos competing in the men’s 200m freestyle.

On Tuesday, the Springbok Sevens will open their campaign against Spain.

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Banyana fall to Sweden in Olympics opener