25/03/2016

Now on BBC News - it's time for the Road to Rio.

This is the Road To Rio show where every month we take

an in-depth look at the preparations for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic

Coming up on this programme, we take a look at the highs and lows

in athletics and a mixed set of performances by the British team

We speak with Rory McIlroy who will be among the world's

biggest names in golf computing at the Olympics for the first

It's going to be a great experience going down

there and being with all the other athletes in Rio and really feeling

And it's a family affair for the modern

We go behind the scenes with the London

2012 silver medallist who is hoping to go one better in Rio.

Less than five months to go before the start

The 28th summer games of the modern era.

The biggest event in the sporting calendar.

Athletics is the sport most keenly anticipated,

the blue ribbon event of every Olympics.

With us now is Olympic double gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes.

Dame Kelly, at this stage, can an athlete

allow themselves to get excited about the Olympics?

I think depending on the discipline or the experience that an athlete

has, different people will be dealing

At this time of year, I would either be

finishing indoors or still in the midst of deep winter training.

Actually, it's still a long way to go until the Olympic Games.

You mentioned the indoors there, we've

seen some of the British athletes in action over at the world indoor

What do you make of the performances?

Perhaps, could have hoped for a few more.

Well, I think the key for everyone to remember

So this year the priority was not to be running indoors.

Some people would use indoors as a way of breaking the monotony

of the winter training, some people need it.

Especially, the speed sprints, jumps athletes

might need it because it is good to have a competition at this

Some athletes wouldn't have taken part, they wouldn't even have

entertained it because it is not part of their long-term plan.

I don't think you should look too much

You are looking at the outdoors and it is

all about the right team at the right time for the Olympics.

Three big names that weren't there at the

indoors, obviously, looking very much forward to seeing them compete

Greg Rutherford, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Mo Farah.

Phenomenal performances at London 2012 and since then how excited

are you about seeing those back in action?

It's always great when you get some established athletes

They're the people that everyone knows.

You're bringing that kudos to the sport.

Especially, for athletes and British fans.

Ennis-Hill to go out of the sport, have a son and then come back and be

She's in a discipline where if you're in the top

of the game and you are going to hold it, you are going to be

To the doing seven events and to be there at the top of your game

in all of those, not many people are going to be able to do it.

If she pulls it off and won a gold, or even a medal, that would be

Obviously, a very difficult time for athletics

Is enough being done to make this a clean sport?

Looking back, you start seeing a pattern.

Certain countries where lots of athletes are starting to be

Because how all the corruption and deceit happened in the first

place, under the radar, it baffles me totally.

Secondly, unless it all comes out in the open, things

The fact that it has actually come out in the open

there has been systematic doping, I'm sure more countries than just

All the Russian athletes that have been done.

In a lot of sports, not just athletics.

I'm not the authority to say that but unless they absolutely have

The books must say Olympic Games things have changed for the best.

Some very big decisions to be made an over the next few months.

Thank you very much for your time, Dame Kelly Holmes.

From an established Olympic sport to one hoping to make it

This summer, golf will feature for the first time in 1904.

60 men and 60 women will battle it out for the medals.

Places largely depending on world rankings with a maximum of four

Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy has opted to compete for Ireland rather

He'll be under the captaincy of Paul McGinley and they've been

speaking to our reporter Stephen Watson.

He's won some of golf 's biggest tournaments.

And lifted many of its most famous trophies.

Now Rory McIlroy will help showcase golf in Rio this summer.

I never, as a golfer, I never thought that I would compete

I never dreamed of winning Olympic gold, it was never part

I wanted to win majors and play on Ryder Cup teams and be

number one in the world but never once did I think about the Olympics.

It is going to be a great experience going down

there and being with all the other athletes in Rio and really

feeling what an Olympic Games is like.

The Irish golf team leader is former winning Ryder Cup captain

He has just returned from Brazil on a scouting mission

and is confident his sport will be an Olympic success.

I think they will embrace it and I think it is

It is a whole new world to be going over to Rio

and competing with all the other sports and tried to represent golf

in the best way we can and, of course, try and represent

The course in Rio has been purpose-built for the games.

It welcome some of golf's major stars in August.

McIlroy isn't quite sure how going for gold will feel.

I don't really know how to even process that because I've never

thought about it I feel everything I've done in my career I dreamed

about as a little kid but the Olympics, I didn't.

It is such a weird thing to think about.

At the same time, I know how much an Olympic gold medal

means to a country and not just an individual.

If that were to happen, that would obviously

McIlroy like most professional players may not swap a major

for an Olympic medal but he would still

very much like to add one to what is already

The women's highest-ranking golfers will also be competing in Rio,

according to the current standings the British

team would be represented by Charley Hull

For them, it's a chance not to only boost the profile of the women's

game but also be a part of something special.

This would probably be my only chance to

make the team so I think it will be a great goal of mine this year

As an event, I think you always watch it growing up.

It will be a great experience to go and play in them.

It would be a buzz to play in the Olympics and be an Olympian.

Hopefully, come away winning something.

It is not like it is a team event, playing foursomes or a fourball.

It still feels like you are playing for yourself as well.

I think it is good that if you come away winning a gold medal,

you're putting that towards the whole team

Britain's cyclists have dominated the track at recent

Olympics winning a total of 26 medals across the last two games.

The track world championships in early March were seen as key

Laura Trott was again the standout performer with scratch and Omnium

But they are not the only British successes.

We asked Sir Chris Hoy for his views on how the GB team is shaping up.

I think the GB team are in great shape moving

The last four years has been some ups and downs but it is all coming

together at the right time, particularly the sprint squad

with a return from Becky James who has had so many injury issues

and health issues over the last two years.

Jason Kenny becoming world champion in the sprint.

Bradley Wiggins, I think, is crucial to the team

It's great to have a rider of his talent

back in the team but more than that it's his presence,

it's the fact that he shoulders a lot of the pressure and the media

attention and lets the rest of the team focus on the job at hand.

To have somebody of his calibre on your side, it can

Whether it happens, or not, I don't know.

A great games would be three or four gold medals for the team and maybe

one or two silver medals or bronze medals to add to the tally.

I still think that GB can be the top nation overall and three

or four gold medals would do the job.

Great Britain's para-cyclists topped the medal table

Dame Sarah Storey won gold to maintain her

unbeaten international record in the individual pursuit.

Kedina Cox, who's aiming to compete in both

athletics and cycling in Rio, set a new world record as she won

Britain 18 golds and 17 medals in total at the track

Second only to the cyclists in terms of

medals won at London 2012 were the rowing team.

One of our most successful live exports.

In fact, the only sport in which we have won

a gold medal at every game since 1984.

Rowers have to be all-round athletes.

Preparation is not only about spending time on the water.

One of the hardest challenges for them is the dreaded Ergo test

where they have to go full pelt on an

indoor rowing machine over a longer than race distance.

The test has a very strange hold over everyone.

It is one of the toughest things we do.

It is your chance to say to the coach put me in the boat.

The test gives the coach a score really for

When we're on the water, in crews of two people or more

it is hard to see who is doing what and who is making the boat go

There's no way of hiding on a rowing machine.

They are a test of pure physical effort at the very limit.

You push yourself as hard as you can for what

You have got to do that for almost 18 minutes.

You have to hit it hard and you know it is going to be horrific

and you just have two sit there and get through to the end.

You've got to give the coach a reason to be

You want to have people fighting for seats.

You want to have people feeling there's

not enough seats to go around and you will do everything to get

No seat is ever safe until you are on the start line,

I think there is a masochist inside of every rower.

Since those tests, the British trials have been held at Caversham.

The reigning Olympic world and European champion Helen

Glover and Heather Stanning signalled their intent to win

Their winning title margin is over ten

Among the other notable performances, there was a ninth

trials victory for Alan Campbell in the men's single sculls final.

Alan Campbell who won Olympic bronze at

London 2012 described it as a hard race but said he now felt that

a huge weight had been lifted with this performance.

Modern pentathlete Samantha Murray won the final medal of London 2012.

She will be hoping to turn the silver from

In her sport, athletes must tackle five

separate disciplines and show-jumping is often

the element which makes or breaks medal hopes.

Fortunately, Samantha has had a perfect riding coach for a long

Samantha Murray is reunited with her first horse

Do you remember Sam when you was a baby and she was a baby?

We sat her on the horse when she was about six weeks old.

Every girl's dream is to have a pony and here

there are loads of others, as you can see, the little ponies

that we had fun with and it was the best

It was priceless, what I had access to.

Her grandma also introduced Sam to the sport of

I saw this wagon and it said modern pentathlon on the side.

So, I said, Sam, ask that man what it is, modern pentathlon?

A decade later and Sylvia was in the crowd as her

granddaughter won silver at London 2012.

Today, Sam trains in Bath but relishes her trips

Lovely. Got her on the right leg.

Whenever I'm at home in Lancashire I have a trip up

I get a cheese pie and then I come here and help out a bit

They are still going. They've still got all these ponies.

She mocks them out as well and grooms them and cleans

You get her working when she comes here?

With her sights set on a gold in Rio, Sam knows she can count

Get the right lead, please. Good.

Now, it's my profession, it's my job.

It's crazy but it is quite humbling to think that it all started here.

When she is on the horse, do you give her any tips or advice?

Oh yeah. I can't keep my mouth shut.

Few Olympic games have what you would consider

Think of the worries about venues being ready on time,

Then there were the pollution problems

And, of course, budget cuts pre-London 2012.

But Rio is in a rather unique position with problems

from all of those areas just months before the games.

There is also the rising threat of the Zika virus and serious

To bring us up to date on the latest is the BBC's

South America correspondent Wyre Davies joins me from Rio.

Tell us a little bit more about the political problems

Brazil is facing the perfect storm, this country is in the middle

of a political crisis, economic crisis, a corruption

scandal and we don't even know if the current president

of Brazil Dilma Roussef will still be

leading this country on August fifth when the opening ceremony takes

That she won't because of the pressure on her to resign or to be

impeached. Notwithstanding that, building has gone ahead. The venues

are looking pretty good in the four zones around Rio but there are

serious questions about financing and cuts, all because of the crisis

Brazil is facing. The Zico virus has been gathering momentum and

increasing concern around the continent about it. What guarantees

other government given about the safety of athletes and visiting

fans? Although the virus has dropped out of the headlines because of the

economic crisis, it is still growing across the continent. The advice is

pregnant women should not travel to Brazil for the games and people

thinking about getting pregnant should think twice. Officials from

the IOC have said that they wouldn't expect to see athletes in the early

stages of pregnancy coming to the games. Brazil is placing all its

eggs in one basket, hoping that this happening in the winter means that

the impact of the virus won't be as great during the games. We have seen

significant budget cuts in the city and around the country, in Rio in

particularly. A lot of the cleaning up will not be now happening. The

Olympic venues are looking pretty good. On a sporting front, the games

will be a success. The big question is about infrastructure. Will the

metro line linking the city and the Olympic Park be ready? The city has

given up on cleaning the waters around the Bay where most of the

sailing is taking place. These are going to be the first austerity

games. Forced upon them because of the economic crisis. Most of the

test events have gone very well and Olympic organisers are very happy.

They don't want to see protests. The kind of things that we saw before

the Confederations Cup and the World Cup. That is one reason that budgets

are being cut. They don't want to give the impression that millions

more dollars are being spent on venues and the games. They are very

keen to keep within budget. Having said that, the political situation

is beyond their control and the politics, the economics might mean

that there are more problems on the streets. It will be fascinating to

see what happens in the coming months. A fortnight after the

Olympics finishes, competition begins for the Paralympic athletes.

We caught up with the double champion Hannah Cockroft to find out

how preparations are going. Going into London, I was 19, I was

unknown. There was no pressure. Everybody was going to cheer for me,

whether I came first or last because I was wearing a GB top. Four-year is

down the line, I am seven time Olympic champion and I have a big

status to uphold and it brings pressure. It is mostly pressure I

put on myself. Ticket sales do worry me a little bit. It is soul

destroying because you work hard to achieve these things and then you

get there and you think that people don't care. It is great that we know

we are going out there with a lot of British support but it would be

great to have full stadiums as well, please, thanks. I lost my first race

in seven years and Carrie was the one to do that. At 14 years old, it

was amazing. She watched me at London and decided she wanted to

beat me. It is insane and makes me want to kick myself. But it is great

to have competition and we have a massively talented team and we can

bring home medals. London 2012 established Hannah as one of our

leading Paralympic athletes. Now, another athlete has overcome many

problems to get to these games. He has suffered depression, injuries,

and other disorders to get to the games. I don't think the site loss

is a great partner for that. Sometimes I for get my position. I

had always had problems with my eyesight but I wasn't willing to

accept it. Five years ago during a routine eye check he was told he was

losing his sight. There and then, his life changed forever. I thought

it couldn't be real. I was very reluctant. I thought it couldn't be

right. It seemed very unfair. Despite his apprehension, he has

made a seamless transition into visually impaired judo. He became a

world bronze medallist in 2014. Nine months ago, he suffered a serious

knee injury that threatened his chances of qualifying for Rio. I

don't think I dealt with it very well. I went through a very rocky

part. The first four months were not about rehabilitating the neat but of

the mind. I was in a very sad place. Before my injury, I think I had

suffered a lot worse. I suffer from depression and then with the injury,

everything seemed so unfair. It was pretty much as far as depression can

go. From the darkest days, he has turned it around. Come Rio, he will

be battling for gold but now he is focusing on battles closer to home.

You always look back on something through the last emotion you

experience. At the moment, I am very happy and I only wished to look back

at the last five months so it is why I'm hesitant to look forward. That

is just about all we have time for. We will be back at the end of April.

For now, we will leave you with a flavour of some of the key events

coming up over the next month on the road to Rio.

Good afternoon. It is a beautiful day out there. A glorious Good

Friday for most of us. Beautiful blue skies overhead here in