Santiago. After the excitement of the Pan American Games, Santiago inaugurated on Friday the event for Parapan American athletes, which will have some 2,000 competitors and places in nine sports for the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
Representatives from 31 countries will meet at the National Stadium in the Chilean capital and compete in 17 sports, including basketball, rugby and wheelchair tennis; parasport shooting, swimming, taekwondo, athletics, cycling and badminton.
“From here, on this beautiful night, surrounded by the Andes mountain range, with a beautiful National Stadium, I solemnly declare the Santiago 2023 Parapan American Games open,” said an excited Chilean president, Gabriel Boric.
The party opened with a show inspired by the “cosmos and people,” to show the connection between urban aesthetics and the sky, said the creative director of the ceremony, Hansel Cereza.
The ceremony featured Chilean artists such as singers Beto Cuevas, Denise Rosenthal and Latin Grammy winner Anita Tijoux, who performed, along with Movimiento Original, the official song of the event “A la Cima.”
During these Games, which will last until November 26, nine sports will provide direct places for the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
Among them, boccia stands out, intended for athletes with cerebral palsy, or goalball, created for people with visual disabilities. These two disciplines are exclusively Paralympic.
They were created for people with mobility or visual difficulties and are not an adaptation of traditional sports like the rest.
Unlike the Pan American Games, where the United States is the main power with 2,210 gold medals in the history of the Games, double that of Cuba, its closest pursuer, Brazil is the leader in the Parapan American Games.
Since the debut of this event in Mexico City in 1999, Brazilians have won 585 Parapan American gold medals, followed by Mexico with 402 and the United States with 220.
Among the main stars present in Santiago-2023 is the Brazilian “O Rei Ricardinho”, considered the best blind footballer in history.
Ricardo Alves – who wears the number 10 shirt, as the legendary Brazilian Pelé once did – won four gold medals in consecutive Paralympic Games: Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Tokyo 2020. He also won three World Cups and was three times the best blind footballer on the planet.
The Mexican mermaid Naomi Somellera Mandujano will seek to repeat in Santiago the success she already achieved in Lima 2019, where she won six medals in swimming.
Meanwhile, the United States arrived with a delegation made up of 240 para-athletes, including 23 Paralympic champions. Among them, the men’s wheelchair basketball team, which won the gold medal at Tokyo 2020.
Although the competitions began on Thursday with the debut of table paratennis, it will be this Saturday when the first medals of the event will be won.
In addition to table tennis, finals will be held in swimming, weightlifting and shooting sports. This last discipline will give three direct places for Paris 2024.
2023-11-18 03:52:32
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