Río de Janeiro - President Dilma Rousseff said that the Rio 2016 Olympics will be an event to promote peace among the peoples.

After noting that just 409 are left to turn this city into the capital of the Olympics, Rousseff greeted and wished success to the 600 athletes that will take part in the 17th Pan-American Games in Toronto, to be held on July 10-26.

"You are the legitimate heirs of the devotion and excellence of Maria Lenk (1915-2007), the first Brazilian woman to set a world record and first Sputh American woman in competing in Olympic Games (Los Angeles, 1932)," Rousseff told the athletes.

"Thanks to you, we are all sure that from now on Brazil will know how to present itself through yo; I wish Toronto to be a good training for the unique opportunity that the Olympics here in Rio de Janeiro will be," she added.

Accompanied by Governor of Rio de Janeiro, Luiz Fernando Pezao, Prefect Eduardo Paes, Sports Minister George Hilton and Presidenty of the Brazil Olympic Committee Carlos Arthur Nuzman, Rousseff attended the presentation of the national mascot for the Rio 2016 Olympics: a jaguar dressed in the colors of the Brazilian flag.

She later toured the Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, where the competitions of swimming, synchronized swimming and dive of the Pan American Games of 2007 took place and also met with BOC officials and Rio authorities to assess the march of works for the 2016 Olympics.