RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) — The IOC is counting on the experience of London organisers in hosting successful Olympics to help Rio de Janeiro deliver the same in 2016.

Rio organising committee president Carlos Nuzman praised the “extraordinary” help from the London team and said the lessons learned after weeklong debriefing sessions here will contribute greatly to the first Olympics in South America.

IOC vice president Nawal El Moutawakel said London’s experience will provide a “long-term influence” to the future hosts and the Olympic movement.

“I said that London had advanced the cause of the Olympics, and they have certainly reinforced that claim this week,” Moutawakel said yesterday. “This was not about what went right in London or about what went wrong in London. It was about sharing experiences, about sharing ideas, about giving back to our movement.”

Moutawakel, who heads the IOC’s 2016 co-ordination commission, said she hopes Rio learned from how London “worked closely” together with key clients — including athletes, sponsors, the media and fans — “to insure they were delivering correct services at the right time”.

“This level of preparation required a huge amount of work and co-ordination but can make the difference between good games and great games,” she said. “On a project of this complexity, this is a Herculean task, but the London team was able to ensure that everyone was all pulling in the same direction for the good and the benefit of the project.”

Paul Deighton, the chief executive of the London organising committee, said he wanted to make sure Rio works hard to get the population behind the games.

“We found particularly interesting to talk about the ways that we engaged millions of people across the UK and how the population embraced the games. We talked about ways of making that happening here,” he said. “It’s Rio’s moment to shine. This is a wonderful opportunity for Rio to transform the city and the lives of its young people.”

Deighton said he felt Rio has been doing its “homework”.

“People from Rio have been very focused on the job that they have to do, they are asking all the right questions and they are really on top of what they need to be doing,” he said.

Nuzman thanked the London team for passing detailed information during what he called the best “debriefing” sessions that he has ever attended.

“The lessons we learned these few days certainly will contribute a lot to how we will organise the games and to the growth of the Olympic movement in Brazil and in the world,” he said. “I hope to do the same for the 2020 cities.”

Organisers of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and of the 2016 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, also participated in the debriefing, along with the three bid cities for the 2020 Summer Games — Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo.