Temer, who played a minor role in the ceremony by opening up the Games and handing over ceremonial roles to performers, was booed by the crowd – made up of mostly Brazilians.
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The Paralympic Games has opened with 4,350 athletes demonstrating first-hand their creed: “The heart knows no limits; everybody has a heart”.
Among the highlights of the ceremony was a stunt in which wheelchair athlete Aaron Wheelz sped down a 17-meter ramp before completing a stunning reverse somersault.
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 – together with Iranian discus thrower Shahrad Nasajpour make up a two-strong refugee team.
Craven said a record 1,500 athletes would be tested for doping during the Rio Paralympics.
Seventeen days after the Olympics closed, with the Paralympics embroiled in the worst build-up in its 56-year history, Brazil belatedly got into the Paralympic mood. The country just removed its elected president, and these games needed a government bailout of nearly $80 million to make it to the starting line.
An alternative competition among Paralympians has kicked off in Moscow after the entire Russian Paralympics team was banned from participating in Rio 2016 Paralympics by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
The skies around Maracana Stadium located in the sprawling Brazilian metropolitan city was once again alighted with colourful bursts of fireworks that marked the Games’ official opening.
Among them is former Manning local Anna Muldoon, who is the Australian Paralympic Committee’s (APC) classification manager. Brazil’s 10-time Paralympic champion Daniel Dias swimming in a virtual pool before a colourful samba on virtual sands.
“It’s not a problem of laws; we have the best laws in the Americas”, Gustavo Proença da Silva Mendonça, an attorney and professor focused on minority issues, told the Monitor’s Jonathan Gilbert. As many as 154 countries are taking part in the Games, up from 115 in London four years ago.
Mr Formochkin’s action is seen as support for Russian athletes who have been banned from the Paralympic Games due to the continuing fallout of the McLaren Report by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which alleged that Russia was engaging in “state-sponsored doping”. The goal is 2.4 million.
The post Rio Paralympics: Brazil president booed at opening ceremony appeared first on Vanguard News.
Temer opened the games officially and, as he was in the Olympics when he was only the acting president, was jeered by fans chanting “Fora Temer” Out Temer.
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Now let us look at the medals.
