Brazilian ambassador to Jamaica Carlos den Hartog and sponsors Digicel celebrated with Team Jamaica and wished them well in their enormous endeavours going to the Rio Olympics in the coming days.

The glitzy red carpet ‘Boa Sorte’ send-off event held on Tuesday at the Brazilian Embassy in Kingston attracted a host of celebrities including Prime Minister Andrew Holness and other government officials, and leader of the opposition Portia Simpson Miller.

Jamaica will field its largest contingent of athletes ever at an Olympic Games, 63, scheduled for August 5-21 in Rio de Janeiro. The Games itself is the largest ever, with Brazil set to host 205 countries and some 10,800 athletes participating in 28 different sports.

Patrick King, director of customer solutions at Digicel, while wishing the Olympians the best of fortune, noted that it is an occasion such as this that never grows “stale for us at Digicel.”

In fact, he pointed out that it “re-energises” their mission to continue to invest in the future of Jamaica’s athletics programme, as well as the athletes themselves who have gone on to become world beaters.

“Though they’ll be 63 in number, our athletes will be lifted by the strength of over 2.7 million Jamaicans, plus an almost equal number in the Diaspora, who will be sending up cheers, prayers and words of encouragement in a way only we know how to,” King said while addressing the session.

King noted that Digicel is excited and honoured to be partnering with the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) to host Jamaica House in Rio this summer in bringing the beat of Jamaica to Brazil with aims of making it a spectacular experience.

He explained that they will be using social media pages, through the MyDigicel App, Sportsmax, Digicel Play, CEEN and CVM TV among other avenues to bring the beat to “our customers as much as we can”.

As a longstanding supporter of Jamaican athletes, King outlined that Digicel is aware of the significance of the Olympics to Jamaicans both at home and in the Diaspora. Digicel has been a sponsor of many Jamaican athletes over the years including Usain Bolt since 2004 and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce since 2008.

Ambassador den Hartog echoed the same sentiments.

“We all believe and expect that the Jamaican team will win many medals in Rio.

”Jamaican athletes have proven time and again that they are not only good, but they improve each and every time they compete.

“Some say that Jamaican athletes just have athletics in their DNA, maybe this is true, and maybe it gives them a little margin ahead of others, but based on what I have seen here in Jamaica, I believe that indeed they also have a lot of discipline, dedication, tireless training and the strong will to overcome others and themselves when they compete,” the ambassador stated.