“Never before in the 56 year history of the Paralympic Games have we faced circumstances like this”, said Sir Philip.
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A roughly $7 million travel grant that was supposed to be paid last month to help competing countries get to Brazil for the September 7-18 event that has also been delayed.
When all is said and done at Sunday’s Olympics Closing Ceremony, life in Rio will go back to normal.
The first instalments will now be paid but the IPC is concerned that the delay could threaten some countries’ participation.
The initial payments that ensure full participation from all 165 participating countries were meant to be awarded in July, and the delay could be fatal. Transport services for athletes and teams have also changed, meaning competitors could face problems reaching venues on time. The first athletes are due to arrive on August 31, although there will be no Russians after the country was suspended from the IPC over its state-sponsored doping scheme.
The British Paralympic Association described the situation as “worrying”, while Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson warned that the crisis risked making Paralympic athletes into “second class citizens”.
Craven added the cuts were “likely to impact almost every stakeholder at the Games” admitting that, at present, there at 10 countries who, even if funding comes through, “may struggle to cover the cost of theta travels to the Games”.
The IPC said on Friday that 10 teams would still struggle to afford to come to the Games even when travel grants were paid.
The committee has secured an additional 150 million reals (US$46.8 million) in funding from Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes and said the government would bring in up to 100 million reals of sponsorship from state-run companies.
“You only have to look at some of the achievements from Para athletes over the last two years to realize that we will witness some truly spectacular sport”, he added.
On the flip side, the athletes who can find a way to actually get to this year’s Paralympics will be comforted to know that the security now in place for Olympics will remain unaffected.
Organizers had hoped to sell 2 million tickets to the Paralympics, but with less than three weeks to go before they open, fewer than 300,000 tickets have been sold, officials said.
“I believe the performances of the Para athletes will act as a catalyst for social change”, said Craven.
“The Games will happen, but they may not be – I wouldn’t say tip top, but maybe not as relatively luxurious as in the past”.
“As much as London was awesome, we really hoped Rio would be another step up”, she told the BBC. “Those are the bits they need to concentrate on right now to make sure it happens”.
“We know that London 2012 challenged attitudes to disability and celebrated Paralympians as sporting equals”, Lane added.
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So to all the athletes who do make it to Rio, good luck!
