page_title: 2016 Summer Paralympics
section_title: Closing ceremony
hierarchical_section_title: 2016 Summer Paralympics / The Games / Closing ceremony
caption_attribution_description: Rio de Janeiro - Cerimônia de encerramento dos Jogos Paralímpicos Rio 2016 no Estádio do Maracanã (Tomaz Silva/Agência Brasil)
context_page_description: The 2016 Summer Paralympics, the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 to 18 September 2016. The Games marked the first time a Latin American and South American city hosted the event, the second Southern Hemisphere city and nation, the first one being the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, and also the first time a Lusophone country hosted the event. These Games saw the introduction of two new sports to the Paralympic program: canoeing and the paratriathlon.
  The lead-up to these Paralympics were met with financial shortcomings attributed to tepid sponsor interest and ticket sales, which resulted in cuts to volunteer staffing and transport, the re-location of events and the partial deconstruction of the Deodoro venue cluster. However, ticket sales began to increase as the Games drew nearer, and over 2 million tickets were sold in total—overtaking Beijing 2008 as the second-most-attended Paralympic Games on record.
context_section_description: The closing ceremony of the 2016 Summer Paralympics took place on the evening of 18 September 2016 at the Maracanã Stadium. It featured concert performances by an array of mainstream Brazilian musicians, headlined by pop divas Ivete Sangalo and Gaby Amarantos, as well as the formal handover to Tokyo, host of the 2020 Summer Paralympics, and closing remarks. IPC president Philip Craven led a moment of silence for Iranian cyclist Bahman Golbarnezhad (who was killed the day before in a road cycling accident), stating that his death had "affected us all and left the whole Paralympic Movement united in grief." Craven went on to praise Brazil's reception to the Games and the overall performances of athletes, stating that people "were in awe at what you could do and forgot about what they believed you could not. You showed to the world that with a positive attitude the human body, and above all the human heart and mind, knows no limits and absolutely anything is possible." Craven also announced that he would bestow the Paralympic Order—the IPC's highest honour, on the people of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro for their "outstanding support" of the Paralympics.
caption: Maracanã Stadium minutes before the start of the closing ceremony.
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