Rio de Janeiro is home for the next 11 days to thousands of athletes competing in the 2016 Paralympic Games. The Paralympics are an international sporting event for athletes with physical or intellectual impairments.

The 4,300 athletes come from more than 160 countries.

As the opening ceremony took place Wednesday night, organizers were dealing with budget concerns. They blame slow ticket and sponsorship sales.

The president of the International Paralympic Committee told the Associated Press, “This is the worst situation that we’ve ever found ourselves in at the Paralympic movement.”

Organizers are hoping to sell more than 2 million tickets to the sporting events. A total of 2.5 million tickets are available.Rio de Janeiro opened the Paralympic Games on Wednesday with samba, parading wheelchairs, giant balloons at a sold-out Maracana stadium.

The extraordinary sight of US Paralympian Aaron Wheelz jumping in his wheelchair from a 55 feet (17 meters) ramp got the crowd on its feet. Then the joyous rhythms of samba singers and a carnivalesque reproduction of a Rio beach scene got them dancing.

Thousands of performers were involved either side of the two-hour procession of competing countries at the Maracana.
The opening ceremony began with American Aaron “Wheelz” Fotheringham, in a wheelchair, jumping from a massive ramp from the Maracana stands and performing a back flip through a giant ring.

The Brazilian national anthem was played on the piano by Carlos Martin, whose right hand is severely disabled, before the parade of athletes, with the loudest cheer of the night reserved for competitors from the host nation.

Each nation carried a piece of a jigsaw, which bore the name of their country on one side and faces of competing athletes on the other.

Once completed, the jigsaw was adorned by the faces of every competitor at the 2016 Games. All of the faces came together to form a beating heart, which began beating in time to the music.

One of the most striking parts of the ceremony was when bright lights temporarily ‘blinded’ the crowd to try and show spectators the reality Paralympic athletes face, forcing them to rely on other senses such as hearing.

Source: News Media, 8 Sep. 2016