WATCH: Rio Paralympics 2016 opening ceremony
The Rio Paralympic Games have officially opened with a four-hour extravaganza featuring high-octane energy, artistic creativity and touching humanity.
With a central theme of “Everybody has a heart”, the opening ceremony’s producers promised a show that would “surprise, provoke and celebrate with a Brazilian twist”. And they did not disappoint.
Despite wet and windy conditions at the Maracana stadium, a capacity crowd of more than 50,000 attended the show, which was beamed to television viewers in 154 countries and regions.
The ceremony began with a video that showed images of the Paralympic Games’ birthplace at Stoke Mandeville before super-imposing Sir Philip Craven, the president of the International Paralympic Committee, on a montage of diverse Brazilian
landscapes.
Craven, himself a former Paralympic athlete, then appeared in the Maracana stands where he activated a countdown on a large panel.
With a central theme of “Everybody has a heart”, the opening ceremony’s producers promised a show that would “surprise, provoke and celebrate with a Brazilian twist”. And they did not disappoint.
Despite wet and windy conditions at the Maracana stadium, a capacity crowd of more than 50,000 attended the show, which was beamed to television viewers in 154 countries and regions.
The ceremony began with a video that showed images of the Paralympic Games’ birthplace at Stoke Mandeville before super-imposing Sir Philip Craven, the president of the International Paralympic Committee, on a montage of diverse Brazilian
landscapes.
Craven, himself a former Paralympic athlete, then appeared in the Maracana stands where he activated a countdown on a large panel.