Rio 2016 Makes Good on IPC Travel Grants

(ATR) Travel grants for National Paralympic Committees attending the Rio 2016 Paralympics are paid.

Both the International Paralympic Committee and Rio 2016 confirmed to Around the Rings the grants were paid in full this week. The payment represents the second installation for the grants, the first which were paid late, but arrived just before the Paralympics began.

The IPC declined to say if National Paralympic Committees, which took out loans for financial solvency while waiting for the grants, defaulted on repayments. Eventually 160 delegations took part in the 2016 Paralympics, with only Liberia and Comoros withdrawing for independent issues. A spokesperson for the IPC told ATR that the entirety of the $3.5 million due had been paid.

Rio 2016 head of communications Mario Andrada told ATR that "revenue from smaller sponsors" was used to pay the IPC. The IPC had lobbied to both Rio 2016 and to the Rio municipal government for the travel grant funds.

Originally, the grants were to be paid with funds in a bank account Rio 2016 had been using to pay suppliers. As the organizing committee continues the process to renegotiate some supplier contracts, a Rio judge put an injunction on withdrawing funds. The injunction came days before Rio 2016 was due to pay the IPC, eventually leading to the delay in transferring the funds. Rio 2016 says only seven suppliers remain to be paid from Olympic contracts.

Andrada said that Rio 2016 does not have any information about when the injunction will be lifted. The Brazilian court system shuts down ahead of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, so it is unlikely the injunction will be lifted before early January.

Written by Aaron Bauer

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