WATCH: The opening of the Rio Paralympics 2016
The Rio Paralympic Games officially opened on Wednesday 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.
As the countdown reached its climax, Aaron Wheelz, an extreme wheelchair athlete, hurtled down a 17-meter ramp and executed a stunning reverse somersault while fireworks lit up the skyline. With the tone of the ceremony set, the work of artistic directors Vik Muniz, Fred Gelli, Marcelo Paiva and Paula Mello then subtly delivered the ceremony’s central theme.
In a tribute to one of the oldest icons of human ingenuity – the wheel – seven-year-old percussionist Pedrinho da Serrinha entered the stage while playing a solo on the pandeiro, a Brazilian hand-frame drum. A samba circle of artists appeared around him while images projected from above gave the impression that the stage was revolving.