RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff expressed her hope on Tuesday that boxing would gift host Brazil a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Meeting brothers Esquiva and Yamaguchi Falcao, who won silver and bronze medals respectively at the London Olympics, Rousseff said she learned a lot about the sport from them.
She spoke highly of the two boxers who come from a poor family. "We must box all the things that get in the way of the country's development," she said, using a sport metaphor.
According to Rousseff, Brazil aims at increasing the number of medals in the Rio Olympics, and she is sure boxing will contribute a gold.
Brazilian boxers got three medals in London, the best result of this sport in the Olympics. For the first time, a female Brazilian boxer was a medalist in the Games (a bronze with Adriana Araujo on the light category).
Brazil got 17 medals in the London Games, the highest ever achieved by Brazilian athletes, but the number of gold medals dropped from five to three compared to Beijing 2008.
The Olympic Flag, received by Rio mayor Eduardo Paes in London, arrived in Brazil on Monday and was presented to President Rousseff on Tuesday morning. The flag will remain in Rio until the 2016 Games.