Brazil Sports Minister steps down five months before the Olympics

Brazil’s Sports Minister George Hilton has been left his role just five months before the country hosts the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Hilton will likely be replaced by Ricardo Leyser, a senior official in the sports ministry who has been managing Olympic preparations.

Hilton’s departure is a sign of how the fallout from Brazil’s spiraling political crisis could affect the country’s preparations for South America’s first Olympics in August.

Appointed in January 2015,  In his acceptance speech Hilton said said: “I may not profoundly understand sport, but I understand people, I know how to listen.”

Hilton’s likely successor, Leyser, has been responsible for coordinating the organization of Rio 2016 Olympic Games within the ministry.

Except for a brief six-month hiatus, he has been the ministry’s secretary for professional sport since 2009.

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