Two Million Tickets Sold For Rio 2016 Paralympics

(ATR) Rio 2016 says the Paralympic ticket sales prove that perceptions of the disabled are changing in the country.

"The Paralympics are the agent to change the perceptions for people with impairment and its key for us to get the proper legacy from these Games," Rio 2016 communications director Mario Andrada tells Around the Rings.

"And the legacy is we understand that everyone has a heart and a right to be socially included in a city and country that is successful and that cares for everybody in the same way."

Organizers reached two million tickets sold on Sep. 14 with four more days left of competition. That makes these Games the second most successful Paralympics in terms of ticket sales behind only London 2012.

Rio 2016 doesn’t believe it will reach its goal of 2.4 million ticket sales that it spoke of as the Games began a week ago but they do expect to reach 2.2 million and surpass their financial target. However, Andrada says it’s more about the energy from the crowds than just the number of people.

"For us the jackpot is the energy that we see in the park in every venue every day," he says. "People now have that perception that Paralympic sport is cool and the kids and the families are having a great time."

International Paralympic Committee communications chief Craig Spence adds that reaching two million is an incredible accomplishment considering the concerns preceding the Games.

"Two million is a fabulous achievement, bearing in mind where we were in the end of August when we only had 200,000," he tells ATR. "So to sell 10 times more than that in a matter of weeks shows how the Brazilian audience and the Cariocas have reacted to these Games and really embraced them."

Spence also says that although the ticket sales are lower than London the IPC has seen more traffic on its website and they are breaking television audience records.

"We’re ecstatic because we’re offering less coverage on the website due to more rights holders not allowing for us to broadcast certain events," he says. "It comes back to the athlete performances that are giving people talking points every single day."

"I think that every single Paralympics we make a big leap forward. We have 39 more countries broadcasting the Games than in London. One of the success stories is India. They bought rights for the first time here and they won gold medals for the first time at the Paralympics."

He says that the success of the new sports added to the Paralympics this year – paratriathlon and canoe – shows the Paralympics will continue to grow year after year.

"Triathlon has been an overwhelming success at these Games, but there is still a learning curve on what we can do better there," Spence says. "I think it’s really good to see how the new sports have fit into the Paralympics and we’ll be adding two more at Tokyo 2020 with taekwondo and badminton."

"I think it’s important we bring in new sports to the Paralympics because we want it to be fresh, to engage new audiences and get people talking – triathlon certainly achieved that."

Written by Kevin Nutley in Rio de Janeiro.

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