Beijing bids farewell to the Winter Paralympic Games | Other Sports | sports

The Beijing Winter Paralympics they lowered the curtain with a closing ceremonybarely an hour long, in which the diversity of people with disabilities was valued that exists in the world, a message of “peace and union through dialogue”and the Chinese city handed over to Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo with an explosion of light and color.

The ceremony began with a representation of skiers and snowboarders who made an appearance in the center of the stadium and who symbolized some of the disciplines that for ten days they have been seen in the competition program of these Games.

to Beijing representatives of 46 national Paralympic Committees attended To participate in 78 events of medals in six sports.

Representatives of all those countries paraded through the ‘Bird’s Nest’ to the rhythm of the ‘Hymn of Joy’, that in its symphonic version accompanied all the flag bearers on their return to the stadium carrying the flags of their respective countries.

The only three debutant countries in these Games were Israel, Panama and Azerbaijan, whose participation in Beijing reflects the growth that the Paralympic movement is having in these nations.

The athletes who were not in Beijingdespite the fact that they arrived in China days before the start of the Games, are the Russians and Belarusians, who were excluded by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) due to threats from other countries not to participate if they were there.

At the closing ceremony the nine hundred volunteers of these Games were honored, whose work was essential for them to get ahead. His recognition was the prelude to a few minutes of music with a choir of four singers, one of them blind, while the center of the stadium became a huge mosaic of light and color that showed the natural diversity that exists on the planet.

One of the most emotional moments of the gala was when a Chinese artist played an instrumental song with her double bass and the flag representing the International Paralympic Committee It slid down the mast until it stopped in the hands of Cai Qi, president of the Organizing Committee of the Games, who he gave it to Andrew Parsons and he gave it to the representatives of Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzowho waved it in the wind before the Italian flag was raised.

Then Andrew Parsons took the floor, who assured that in Beijing, fourteen years ago, at the 2008 Games, “a irreversible path that every day is making the Paralympic movement bigger”.

“The Paralympic athletes give a voice to the 15% of the world’s population with disabilities. Competing on snow and ice, you have given us magical moments that reflect the diversity that inspires and motivates us. The differences here do not divide us, they unite us. Wait that the values ​​of inclusion, harmony and peace prevail together with dialogue to make a better world”, Parsons said, under the watchful eye of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The silhouette of a clock, with the twelve numbers of the hours, was the framework chosen for a token counter in which the handles, when completing the entire turn, they extinguished the light of the stadium and also the flame of the torch. It was then that a children’s choir, singing a melodic song against a background that symbolized winter, put an end to the Games that definitively closed with an explosion of fireworks that filled the night with light for a few minutes. Beijing.

With this closing ceremony, Beijing concluded the Games that will have their next stop in Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo in four yearsin 2026. (D)