The Rio 2016 Paralympics opening ceremony took place Wednesday in Marakana stadium with an impressive show of fireworks and dancers. The 4,300 athletes from 160 countries entered the stadium lead by the 60-member Greek team, which was headed by flag bearer and London 2012 medal winner Grigoris Polychronidis. The opening ceremony began with American Aaron “Wheelz” Fotheringham, in a wheelchair, jumping from a massive ramp from the Maracana stands and performing a back flip through a giant ring. The Brazilian national anthem was played on the piano by Carlos Martin, whose right hand is severely disabled, before the parade of athletes, with the loudest cheer of the night reserved for competitors from the host nation. Each nation carried a piece of a jigsaw, which bore the name of their country on one side and faces of competing athletes on the other. Once completed, the jigsaw was adorned by the faces of every competitor at the 2016 Games. All of the faces came together to form a beating heart, which began beating in time to the music. The biggest concern for the Games was around a shortfall in funding, with the struggling Brazilian economy and low ticket sales meaning Rio’s organising committee had not raised enough money to fund the event. There was also the ongoing saga of whether Russian athletes would be able to compete, after a report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Association found evidence of widespread doping across Russian sport. Unlike the Olympics, which allowed individual sport federations to decide if Russians could compete at Rio 2016, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has applied a blanket ban, which Russian officials unsuccessfully appealed against.

Source: bbc.com