AFP
Rio de Janeiro, Sept 7: Thousands of fans and athletes will open the 2016 Rio Paralympics at a gala ceremony here Wednesday (India time Thursday) where organisers hope to draw a line under a chaotic build-up.
A Russian doping scandal and claims that the athletes’ classification system is being manipulated have made for a rocky start to the Paralympic Games, which were also hit by serious financial concerns and worries over ticket sales.
But less than three weeks after the flame went out on South America’s first Olympics, Rio will welcome 4,300 Paralympians hoping to pull another successful event out of the fire.
Russian para-athletes, who finished second behind China in the London 2012 medals table, were last month barred from the 12-day Games by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) following a WADA report which alleged a vast state-sponsored doping programme.
Separately UK Athletics will review classifications after the Games, according to the ‘BBC’, following concerns that athletes were being mismatched, creating an unfair advantage. “We are here to win medals, but within both the letter and the spirit of the Paralympics,” insisted British Paralympic Association chief Tim Hollingsworth here Tuesday.
Top stars here at Rio include Iranian powerlifter Siamand Rahman, Britain’s wheelchair racer David Weir and China’s blind sprinter Liu Cuiqing.
Six countries are sending athletes for the very first time, and Syrian swimmer Ibrahim Al-Hussein, who lost a leg in an explosion in his nation’s civil war, and Iranian discus thrower Shahrad Nasajpour make up a two-strong refugee team.
As the Games finally get underway, the 41 career gold medals won by blind American swimmer Trischa Zorn between 1980 and 2004 looks unbeatable, but the Paralympics will inevitably produce new tales of courage.
