The Rio Paralympics get under way tomorrow. Here, we look at some of the numbers behind the Games.
15 – Rio will be the 15th modern Paralympic Games, with Rome in 1960 considered the first, although there were events at Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire from 1948.
6 🔥 unite to form a single #ParalympicFlame in Rio
— Rio 2016 (@Rio2016_en) September 6, 2016
Brasilia🔥
Stoke Mandeville🔥
Belém🔥
Natal🔥
São Paulo🔥
Joinville🔥 pic.twitter.com/NvK1pYZVUy
4,350 – athletes set to compete at the Rio Paralympic Games.
165 – countries, plus refugee team.
528 – medal events in 22 sports.
Two – sports making their Paralympic debuts in Rio: triathlon and canoeing.
10.46 – seconds. The time it took Ireland’s partially-sighted sprinter, Jason Smyth, to win London 2012 gold. It is a record for Paralympic competition.
48 – number of athletes in Paralympics Ireland team for Rio, in 10 of the 22 sports.
It was 46 up until last week when tandem cyclists Peter Ryan and his sighted pilot Marcin Mizgakski were added to the team. The duo were added due to the decision last week by the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) to uphold the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) suspension of Russia from the Paralympic Games.
The IPC reallocated all the slots the Russian athletes would have occupied meaning Peter and Marcin were offered a spot.
Record number of countries set to broadcast #Rio2016 #Paralympics https://t.co/b5ljBKlLBb pic.twitter.com/VglWG8JtDx
— Rio 2016 (@Rio2016_en) September 5, 2016
30 – Hours of Paralympic programming promised by RTÉ
A live television show is to be broadcast during prime time every night on RTÉ 2. Four concurrent live streams are also to be made available on RTÉ.ie throughout the 10 days of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
RTÉ will broadcast over 30 hours of live and highlight coverage of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
Joanne Cantwell will anchor the nightly TV show, with regular appearances from Daráine Mulvihill and London 2012 hand bike gold medallist Mark Rohan.
The live programme will feature reports from Rio and live events as they happen.
