The 2016 Summer Paralympics, the fifteenth Summer Paralympic Games, is a major international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016. The Games mark the first time a Latin Americanand South American city hosts 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 (Portuguese-speaking) country hosts the event. These Games will see 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 Olympic Park. However, ticket sales began to increase during the lead-up to the opening ceremony: on 14 September 2016, the IPC announced that over 2 million tickets had been sold—making these the second-largest Paralympic Games in terms of ticket sales.
