There are just 50 days to go until the curtain goes up on the Paralympic Games. Some athletes, including experienced Paralympians and novices, have already got into the Rio 2016 Games spirt and helped kindle enthusiasm across Brazil by carrying the celebrated symbol of the Olympic Games, the Olympic torch.

The first Paralympian representatives in the relay were sprinter Alan Fonteles and wheelchair tennis player Natália Mayara, two stars of Brazilian Paralympic sport, who carried the flame on the very first day of the torch's arrival on Brazilian soil on 3 May in capital Brasília.

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Fonteles shocked the world by beating favourite Oscar Pistorius in the final of the T44 200m at London 2012. A year later, in Lyon, he won three gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 400m.

“It’s a unique experience to represent the country on home soil in front of my fans,” the sprinter said after carrying the torch.

Mayara is the country’s biggest wheelchair tennis star. Champion at the AqueceRio test event last year, she is also the reigning Parapan American gold medallist, in the singles and doubles. The tennis player was a highlight of the Olympic torch relay’s historic visit to the UN headquarters in Geneva, on 29 April.

“I am like any other person. We are not different from anyone,” she declared in her speech, which received rapturous applause.

Terezinha Guilhermina, another star who has six Paralympic medals to her name (three golds, one silver and two bronze), carried the Olympic torch in her state capital Belo Horizonte on 14 May. Guilhermina is famous for the multi-coloured blindfolds she wears when competing. “To carry the Olympic symbol here in my country has a lot of significance,” said the sprinter from Esmeraldas in the state of Minas Gerais. “It will go into my box of unforgettable moments.”

In Salvador, the Olympic torch relay started off in the hands of swimmer Marcelo Collet. In 2010, Collet became the first Paralympic athlete to cross the English Channel. He will also be competing at the Rio 2016 Games.

“Sport has been my life since childhood. This flame is what all I wait for every four years,” said the swimmer who opened the torch relay in Pelourinho, in the historic centre of Salvador.

Voted the world’s best player in visually impaired 5-a-side football in 2010, Jeferson “Jefinho” Gonçalves, also excited crowds during his leg of the torch relay in Salvador. Known as “the Pele of Paralympic football”, Jefinho is a two-time Olympic gold medallist (Beijing 2008 and London 2012). This year he and his team are favourites to continue an unprecedented winning streak in which they have won gold at every edition of the Paralympic Games since the event was introduced at Athens 2004.

“To feel the joy, the energy of the Brazilian people when I was running with the torch was a taster of what is to come. I feel strengthened.”

The dream of conquering a third gold medal is very close for Jefinho, and the football ace had a special message for the Brazilian public to reach his goal: “We are working very hard to get the medal we want. We are counting on the support of our fans, who I’m sure will fill the stands to cheer on our team.”

Someone else who represented the team of para-athletes well during the Olympic torch’s tour of Brazil was sprinter Lucas Prado, a medal hope for Brazil at Rio 2016. The athlete has already won five Paralympic medals for Brazil, including a hat-trick of golds at Beijing 2008. He carried the torch alongside his guide Laércio Martins in the city of Várzea in Mato Grosso state.

After running with the torch, Prado spoke of his excitement ahead of returning to the Olympic Stadium. “It was in the Engenhão (the local name for the Olympic Stadium) that it all started. I won three golds at the Parapan Games (2007) and announced myself on the international stage. I feel like I am returning home and I’m ready to return to the podium,” he said.

In the southern city of Joinville, in Santa Catarina state, Brazil’s most successful female Paralympic athlete carried the torch and lit the city’s celebratory cauldron. Ádria Santos, who has won 13 medals across six editions of the Games from Seoul 1988 to Beijing 2008, took the opportunity before lighting the cauldron to speak about the importance of fan support, especially for Paralympic athletes.