RIO 2016: On the main road from the Olympic Stadium to Copacabana there is a man standing in the middle of the highway.

On stilts.

Welcome to the Olympic Games, Rio style, where the carnival capital of the world is playing host to the biggest sporting event in the world.

Here is a snapshot of some of the facts, figures and fun to get your Rio Olympics campaign started.

• The 2016 Rio Games are the first Olympics to be held in South America – and just the third to be held in the Southern Hemisphere.
• There are 306 Olympic events across 28 sports.
• There are 6225 male athletes competing at the Rio Games and 5137 female athletes.
• Organisers will prepare 60,000 meals per day to feed the athletes.
• The Olympic Village dining hall runs the length of four Olympic swimming pools and can accommodate around 250,000kg of food each day.
• American Michael Phelps’ Olympic record of 18 gold medals eclipses the entire gold medal tally of hosts Brazil (11 gold).
• The youngest competitor at the games is Nepal’s Gaurika Singh (13 years – DOB 26/11/02), who is competing in the 100m backstroke.
• The oldest competitor is New Zealand's Julie Brougham (62 years  – DOB 20/5/54), who is competing in the dressage.
• The biggest team at the Rio Games is the USA (556), followed by host nation Brazil (469), Germany (424), Australia (421) and China (404).
• The smallest team at the Games is the South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu. Their sole competitor is Etimoni Timuani in the men’s 100m (athletics).
• Nauru, Somalia, Swaziland, Bhutan, Liberia and Mauritania each have two competitors.
• Bhutan is the only nation whose team comprises all women. Bhutan has two competitors at the Games - Karma Karma in the archery and Lenchu Kunzang in the 10m Air rifle.
• Some of the best competitor names in Rio include A Little Romance (Canada), Doesn’t Play Fair (USA) and Boogie Woogie 6 (Australia) – they are all horses in the equestrian events.
• The name of the Olympics mascot, Vinicius, pays tribute to Brazilian musician Vinicius de Moraes.
• Vinicius is a mix of different Brazilian animals. His design takes inspiration from pop culture, as well as video game and animation characters, and represents the diversity of the Brazilian people and culture, as well as its exuberant nature.