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Paralympic Games begin in Barcelona
BARCELONA. Sept 4: Two hundred wheelchairs adorned with multicoloured lights rolled Into Barcelona's Montjuic Olympic Stadium as the Paralympic Games opened to the theme of the light of inspiration on Thursday, reports Reuter
More than 3.000 disabled athletes from 85 countries, who will compete for medals in 15 sport* over 10 days of competition, paraded in a glittering opening ceremony presided over by Spain's Queen Sofia.
The stadium, reduced in capacity from 65.000 during last month's main Olympics to 40.000 to cater for disabled spectators, was packed for the three-hour ceremony, which lacked none of the spectacle or emotion of the opening of the full Games.
In an effort to sustain the Olympic spirit in Barcelona. Games organisers have made all Paralympic sports free to the public. Spectator* pay for the opening and closing ceremonies but top price* were only one fifth of those for the main Games.
Antonio Rcbollo, the
Spanish archer who held millions tn thrall when he fired a blazing arrow to light the Olympic flame last month, staged a perfect repeat performance on Thursday.
The 36-year-old Polio victim from Madrid ignited his arrow from the Olympic torch carried on a lap to the stadium by four differently disabled athletes before sending it arcing 60 metres up to the bowl of the Olympic flame.
Rebolfo. a Paralympic medal winner in Seoul and Los Angeles, is competing again and is hopeful of another medal, despite the "unconventional training" Involved In lighting the flame.
The athlete*, gathered inside the track around an olive tree, symbol of Olympic victory. listened to a message of encouragement from crippled British scientist Stephen Hawking.
"Each of ua. has within us a spark of fire, a creative force." Hawking's computerised voice rang around the hushed stadium.
The important thing Is that one should be stretched to be outstanding in some
field. These Games provide an opportunity for that."
The Barcelona Paralympics, for the blind, sufferers from polio and related diseases, para and tetrapleglcs. amputees and victims of cerebral palsy, are the ninth since the movement began as part of the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
Barcelona is the fourth Olympic city to stage the Paralympics as an extension of the worlds biggest single sporting event, using many of the same venues.
Many Paralympic sports are the same as their full Olympic counterparts — athletics, cycling. shooting, archery, weightlifting — but others are designed specially for the dis-
Boccla. a version of the French game of Boules, Is played by people with cerebral palsy. Goalball is a game for the blind, with players aiming to score goals aided by bell* Inside the ball.
An indication of how seriously the Paralympics are taken is that for the first time competitors will be subject to full International Olympic Committee (IOC) drugs testing
procedures.
Pre-qualifying tests, during which competitors are sorted into categories according to their disabilities. Included strict controls to ensure athletes did not overstate their limitations in order to compete against less able rivals.
In a welcoming speech. Barcelona mayor Pasqual Maragall said: "For an Olympic city organising the Paralympic Games is more than a moral obligation, it is a satisfaction and a necessity. Without the Paralympic Games we could not speak of removing barriers or of opening up the city."
Maragall and Miguel Duran, president of ONCE. Spain's charity for the blind which put up 40 per cent of the 100 million dollar Games budget, have both made pleas that the Paralympic become an Integral part of the Olympic movement instead of depending on the goodwill of the host city to stage an event for the disabled.
Catalan IOC chairman Juan Antonio Samaranch, talking to the Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia. ruled thl* out on grounds that the Olympics were already too unwieldy.
But Duran persisted. "It does not matter to us if we coincide In time with the able-bodied athletes. What matters to us is that we be considered Olympians and for that we are willing to give up some things."