Rio 2016 organizing committee president, Carlos Nuzman, also gave a ringing endorsement of the host city while offering best wishes to 2020 host Tokyo.
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Team GB’s chef de mission Mark England said: “This will be a very proud moment for all Team GB and ParalympicsGB athletes and rich reward for such fantastic efforts at the recent Games in Rio”.
The curtain came down Sunday on the Rio Paralympics, the largest multisport event for athletes with disabilities held for the first time in South America. President of the International Paralympic Committee Philip Craven passed the Paralympic flag to the governor of Tokyo.
Special awards were then presented to USA wheelchair athlete, Tatyana McFadden, who won four golds at the Rio 2016 Paralympics, her fourth Paralympics, and Syrian swimmer Ibrahim Al Hussein, who had his right leg amputated in 2013 after being injured by a bomb, and competed in this year’s Games in the 50m and 100m freestyle S10.
ParalympicsGB won 64 golds, the most by a British team since 1988, and a total of 147 medals.
According to the minister, ticket sales in Rio surpassed Beijing 2008 with 2.1 million tickets. Part of that success, however, was due to many tickets being sold for as little as $3 (RM12.42) – or given away to school children in an worldwide fill-the-seats campaign.
In his speech Craven praised Cariocas, as Rio’s residents are known, for successfully staging the Paralympics, which enjoyed big crowds despite earlier concerns about slow ticket sales.
Also haunting these Paralympics was Brazil’s political crisis.
There was amazement in the 1,500m track race when Algeria’s Abdellatif Baka set a new record that was actually faster than the winning time by Olympic gold medalist Matthew Centrowitz in the same stadium a month earlier.
Five sports – archery, canoeing, cycling, equestrian and rowing – topped their sport-specific medal table. “Today we are so happy because the sitting volleyball team were able to win the gold medal”.
Singapore sent a record 13-strong team to Brazil, its largest Paralympics contingent.
But the glittering celebration – at one point featuring an unscripted conga line of dancing athletes – paused for a minute’s silence to remember the fatal crash of an Iranian cyclist on Saturday. It was the first-ever death of an athlete during the Games.
As Craven declared the Games over – with Tokyo now taking up the baton for 2020 – he said Brazil had passed a hard test.
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Flags with the word “love” inscribed in various languages took over the centre of the stadium – where the Paralympians were seated – before a stunning fireworks show closed the party.
