This Friday, the construction plans for the Brazilian Paralympic Centre, a pioneering venue and the main training centre for Paralympic athletes in Latin America, were presented in the Palácio dos Bandeirantes, in São Paulo, in the presence of the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff. The TC is part of the Ministry of Sports’ Plano Brasil Medalhas (Brazil Medal Plan) which aims at placing Brazil among the world’s greatest sporting powerhouses, and will be built in the Parque Fontes do Ipiranga.

The Sports Complex will house 14 disciplines: Athletics, Wheelchair Basketball, Boccia, Swimming, Wheelchair Fencing, Football 5-a-Side (for the visually impaired), Football 7-a-Side (for athletes with cerebral palsy), Goalball, Powerlifting, Judo, Wheelchair Rugby, Wheelchair Tennis, Table Tennis and Sitting Volleyball. Countries like China, South Korea and the Ukraine inspired the idea of concentrating sports disciplines in a single venue. The first part of the works is expected to be ready in 2014 and the rest in 2015.

“Here, we are celebrating and not simply honouring, supporting the endurance, the willpower and the action to overcome one’s limits that a great Olympic and Paralympic athlete must have in order to fight and get to the podium. Brazil is creating the Centre for these athletes. Because words are deeds and we owe them this support which is crucial so that high performance athletes can achieve more victories. And besides that, to allow the athletes to turn everything into knowledge”, said the President.

Four gymnasiums, two Football pitches, Tennis courts and Track and Field grounds will be built in a planned area of 94 thousand square metres. Furthermore, a residential area consisting of lodgings, a dining-hall and a launderette, an administrative sector with offices, meeting rooms, auditoriums, storage areas and a parking lot are part of the project. The Sports Medical and Sciences Centre, a fitness centre, changing rooms and other support areas complement the space.

The Paralympic athletes Daniel Dantas, swimmer and member of the Rio 2016™ Sports Council, and Fernando Fernandes, paracanoeist, also attended the event.