The generally positive ending was quite the turnaround from a few weeks ago when the Rio organizers’ woeful finances in the wake of the August Olympics and a stunning lack of interest in tickets raised fears of failure.
Advertisement
The decision published on Monday impacts any financial resources, trucks, equipment and furniture used in Brazil by Spanish-based company Olympic Broadcasting Services, known as OBS.
A joint investigation involving Rio 2016, the International Paralympic Committee, Rio police, medical authorities and cycling’s world governing body, the UCI, has been opened to establish the full circumstances of what was described as a tragic accident.
Represented by 24 athletes in six sports including in judo, athletics, powerlifting, swimming, shooting and archery, Azerbaijan claimed 11 medals in the Rio, thus ranking 33rd in the medal table with one gold, eight silver and two bronze.
The company can still appeal the decision.
For the second time in less than a month the Maracana was lit up by a stunning fireworks display as Rio bid farewell to the 2016 Paralympic Games with a spectacular closing ceremony.
Athletes from France hold a banner with “Thank you Brazil” written during the closing ceremony of the 2016 Paralympic Games.
And tensions over a ban imposed by the International Paralympic Committee on the entire Russian team because of alleged state doping remain strong.
There was a minute’s silence during the ceremony in memory of Bahman Golbarnezhad.
“To be here and to have won medals and to do it in the fashion that I’ve done it is just incredible”.
The total easily surpasses the tally from London 2012, when ParalympicsGB earned 120 medals.
Samuel won the first of the Israeli delegation’s three medals in Rio, all of them bronze.
“It’s my mother’s role to approach those topics but as she doesn’t do it, I now bring them up myself”, she said.
Nikita Howarth bettered the bronze medal she won in the women’s butterfly S7 by winning gold in the pool a day later easily, in the women’s 200m individual medley SM7. Back in China, there are around 85 million disabled people.
The mixed wheelchair rugby team also took bronze and made history by winning Japan’s first-ever Paralympics medal in the sport, defeating Canada 52-50. The Fourth to tenth positions were taken by the US, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil, Italy and Poland.
Advertisement
This was a record-high number of athletes at a Paralympics, even though powerhouse Russian Federation was excluded from the event as the IPC had imposed a blanket ban on athletes from the country at Rio over systematic doping cover-ups.
