brazil's love for sports and competition has produced numerous great athletes, many of them cariocas, who are much admired by fans, not just in rio de janeiro, but worldwide.

as such, brazilian auto racing(link) drivers, such as nelson piquet, ayrton senna and emerson fittipaldi, have dominated the brazilian racing circuit since the late 1970s.

nelson piquet was born in rio de janeiro in 1952 and was regarded as one of the best formula one racers before his retirement - the old formula one racing stadium in rio de janeiro was given the official name of the autodromo nelson piquet before it was demolished in 2012.

marcus vinicus de souza is a professional basketball player from rio de janeiro - in 2005 to 2008 he played on several teams with the nba, including the memphis grizzlies - nowadays marcus plays with the famous flamengo team in rio de janeiro.