The president of the International Paralympic Committee has said the financial problems that have overshadowed the buildup to the Games here must never be allowed to happen again.
A fortnight after warning that an unprecedented funding crisis had left the Paralympics facing the most challenging circumstances in its 56-year history, Sir Philip Craven predicted a Games to remember but criticised Rio 2016 organisers for failing to inform the IPC about the cuts to the budget soon enough.
“Communication is No1,” Craven said. “If you’ve got a problem, don’t let us know about it six or seven weeks before the start of the Paralympics Games. It’s ridiculous. If there’s a criticism of Rio 2016, that’s my criticism. But we don’t look to apportion blame, we look for teamwork. That’s what we’ve got.
“With the city, we’ve got great support from Mayor Paes and his team. We’ve got hundreds of drivers supplied by the city to support transport. But it better never happen again or I’ll be dropping dead halfway through the Olympic Games.”
However, Craven said that a concerted effort in the past two weeks has given him confidence that Rio will produce a successful Games despite cutbacks caused by slow ticket sales, the struggling Brazilian economy and funds being diverted to cover the cost of the Olympics.
Craven’s public intervention is regarded within the IPC as the moment when the organisers were jolted into belated action. There was panic when ticket sales stood at 200,000 last month, but that figure had risen to 1.658m before the first day of competition, with organisers hopeful that affordable pricing will make them meet their revised target of 2.4m.
Another major concern was that teams would be unable to attend after organisers were late paying up to $8m in travel grants. After calls for greater transparency over the use of public money in Brazil, however, the IPC released funds on Wednesday to pay the remaining grants for 10 teams after a legal wrangle with the federal government ensuring that 159 nations and a team comprised of two refugees will compete for medals. The IPC does not know why representatives from Comoros and Liberia have not arrived.
Craven said that the mood in the athletes’ village has been good this week. “People talked to me about transport and said it was going well,” he said. “There have been cuts. But it’s all hands to the pumps. People at the moment are fine. Let’s see how things develop as the competition starts. There will always be problems, but it’s how you react and solve them.”
Craven, who insisted that his relationship with Thomas Bach remains strong despite the president of the International Olympic Committee missing Wednesday’s opening ceremony to attend a memorial service in Germany, defended the IPC’s decision to issue a total ban on the Russian Paralympic Committee following evidence of state-sponsored doping. “There was absolutely no doubt that the Russian state’s sponsorship of doping and in a way trying to legalise that for the benefit of athletes was something we couldn’t tolerate,” he said.
