The visits, organised by Sheffield City Council, were attended by Madam Xiao Min, Vice President of the Chinese Olympic Committee and Gustavo Satio Harada, a member of the Brazilian Olympic Committee's technical department. As well as the City Council, they met with representatives from Sheffield International Venues, Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Sheffield, Creative Sheffield and members of the Sheffield Business community, in their bid to locate a training base for their athletes and coaches to use in the lead up to London 2012.
The pair were in the UK to meet with representatives from London 2012, before joining colleagues in Copenhagen for an International Olympic Committee event.
The focus of Mr Harada's visit was to look into Sheffield's ability to fulfil technical requirements for their athletes. This included tours of potential accommodation, sport science support and facilities including Ponds Forge ISC, Don Valley Stadium and Rother Valley Country Park.
Mr Harada from the Brazilian Olympic Committees technical department, said
"Sheffield is not only a beautiful city with a great youth and full of life environment, but also has state of the art sport facilities, with which the Brazilian athletes would have all their needs for their 2012 preparation fulfilled.
"We still have some planning to do, but in this last visit to the city, the Brazilian Olympic Committee is certain that our athletes would be very much welcomed, matching our culture joy and happiness with the great hospitality of Sheffield, focusing on the best result on 2012 Olympics."
Madam Min was keen to see how relationships could be built with the city and its leaders, focusing on developing international sports exchanges, volunteer schemes and pre-games training camps.
Madam Xiao Min, one of the Chinese Olympic Committee's Vice Presidents said
"I have been deeply impressed with the friendliness shown to the Chinese delegates who have come here to visit Sheffield.
"The sports relationship we can build between us was very much on the agenda. We also discussed how we can best co-operate in terms of education. You have two very famous universities and sports management courses that are being run there. We only had a very few short hours in Sheffield but we have gathered a lot of important information."
Steve Brailey, Chief Executive of Sheffield International Venues, which manages 14 sports venues across Sheffield including Ponds Forge and Don Valley Stadium, said:
"Madam Min was very interested in our existing business links with China and our impressive facilities in Sheffield."
Hopes for further international sporting teams to use Sheffield as a base for their Olympic training camps have been heightened since Serbia signed a Memorandum of Understanding in May 2009 with Sheffield and Leeds to use their facilities over the next three years.
Sheffield, with its high concentration of sporting facilities and expertise, is more than equipped to attract international teams and athletes in the lead up to London 2012. This will help increase Sheffield's international profile, as well as boosting the local economy and raising the city's reputation as an outstanding sporting city.
The work on attracting countries and their athletes to Sheffield is part of Sheffield Lighting the Flame for Sport, a strategy supported by partners from across South Yorkshire aimed at making the most of the opportunities presented by London hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012.
Paul Scriven, Leader of Sheffield City Council explained
"It would be a fantastic opportunity to host teams from China and Brazil here in Sheffield. This visit has been about showing them what our fantastic city has to offer. Not only do we have the facilities, knowledge and experience for hosting elite athletes, but I know that Sheffield people would readily give them a warm welcome. Having this calibre of athlete here in the city will inspire local people and help to enhance Sheffield's reputation in the world as a sporting city."