An Israeli company will manage security at the Rio 2016 Olympics, which starts next week.

International Security & Defence Systems (ISDS) will be overseeing the event’s $2.2 billion security budget after a tendering process which took three years, followed by the selection of the company two years ago.

"We have been living and breathing these Olympics for years already," said ISDS chief executive, Tomer Fulman. "For four years, we have sown, sprouted, watered and grown, and now things are in the right balance."

ISDS, which was founded in 1982 in Tel Aviv by a former Israeli colonel, will ensure the security of 10,000 athletes from all over the world, over 100 heads of state and the Olympic village. Not to mention the hundreds and thousands of fans, onlookers and tourists.

“It’s an honour for ISDS to be the very first ever Israeli group to be part of the Olympic family,” said Leo Gleser, ISDS president and a former Mossad agent.

ISDS’s Olympic ambitions were almost scuppered by the BDS movement. Following attempts to discredit the security firm, which were supported by some of Brazil’s labour unions, a division of Brazil’s Justice Ministry denied that ISDS had been awarded any contract in April.

However ISDS were selected and Mr Fulman said the company dealt with the BDS threat by “ignoring them”.