Paralympics Website Disrupted During Opening Stream

(ATR) Viewers watching the 2016 Paralympic Opening Ceremony saw an interrupted stream on the Paralympics website.

IPC communications director Craig Spence told Around the Rings the interruptions were caused by multiple hacks on the website. He said the IPC is working with the website provider to make sure the 680 hours of content that will be streamed is not interrupted.

"We’re confident everything will go fine and will work," Spence said.

One journalist told ATR last night that the stream had been down for over 90 minutes when they were trying to view the ceremony. Even with interruptions Spence said that the stream still attracted record numbers compared to four years ago.

"Despite our website going down we had three times as many people watching the opening ceremony on our channel compared to London 2012," Spence added. "I think that’s great progress despite what happened."

Online viewing options in Brazil were limited for the Paralympics opening ceremony. Rights holder Globo did not show the ceremony live and the IPC opted not to stream on the newly launched Olympic Channel to maintain exclusivity.

"I think I would have liked to have [Globo] showing it live," Spence said. "I’m happy they are showing a lot of sport action because it’s the sporting action [we] prefer people to watch."

Belarus Protest Won’t Affect Russian Status

The IPC says protests by a Belorussian individual during the Paralympics opening ceremony will have no bearing on Russia’s return to the Paralympic movement.

The Russian Paralympic Committee is currently suspended by the IPC for failure to comply with the IPC anti-doping code. After Rio 2016 the IPC is set to lay out criteria, which will allow Russia to fulfill its membership obligations to the Paralympic movement to return to competition.

During the opening ceremony, Andrei Fomachkin, a guest of the Belarus Paralympic Committee president, displayed a Russian flag as the delegation entered. The IPC deemed Fomachkin’s actions as political and revoked his accreditation.

IPC communications director Craig Spence told ATR these actions will have no bearing on the criteria Russia will have to fulfill to have the suspension lifted against the NPC.

"The only way Russia is going to come back into the Paralympic movement is if they abide by their membership obligations in full in respect to the IPC anti-doping code and the World Anti-doping code," Spence said. "Whether last night has any influence on whether or not Russia is accepted sooner or later, no it doesn’t. Fulfilling their membership obligations does."

Paralympic Signage Late

Paralympic signage continues to be installed in venues around Rio de Janeiro during the first day of competition. TheAgitos logo was put into place yesterday before the opening ceremony at theParalympic Park and Maracana Stadiun.

Rio 2016 communications director Mario Andrada said organizers hoped the logo will be installed before the afternoon session of events.

"We had the same problem in the Olympic, where Engenhao had its rings installed late," Andrada said to ATR. "As long as it looks good when they are installed we are fine. I believe the Agitos that we have been able to install look great."

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

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