Rio 2016’s organising committee has confirmed that its appeal against an injunction blocking the release of public funding to pay for the Paralympic Games has been successful.
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Rio de Janeiro has scraped by to pull off the 2016 Olympic Games as Brazil’s worst recession in decades has decimated both federal and state government budgets.
This is dependent, however, on them being able to overturn a court ruling made last week forbidding Rio 2016 organisers using any public funds unless they make public all of their financial details.
“If no extra funding is available then the Organising Committee will have to implement further cuts to the Paralympic Games, on top of the cuts we have already made alongside the IOC and Olympics”, IPC President Philip Craven told reporters earlier this week.
Rio 2016 spokesman Mario Andrada said he hoped a new advertising push would help with ticket sales.
The Paralympics became a resounding success…
About NZ$108 million in public funding is needed to ensure the Paralympics proceed on schedule and all countries seeking assistance to bring their athletes to Rio can be provided with the necessary cash.
Television viewers around the world have seen swathes of empty plastic seats at Olympic venues, with many sessions for the smaller sports being barely a quarter full.
It was also revealed on Wednesday that only 12 per cent of the available tickets for the Games, which start on September 7, have been sold – an alarming figure considering how poor the actual attendances have been at the Olympics where almost 90 per cent of the tickets have apparently been sold.
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Meanwhile, the IPC announced it has suspended Russian shot-putter Aleksei Lesnykh for four years after he failed a drugs test at the IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai in March. A decision in that case is expected next Monday.
