2019 Parapan American Games

 

Four bids were submitted for the 2019 Pan and Parapan American Games, and they were officially announced on February 1, 2013. These were Lima in Peru, Santiago in Chile, Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela and La Punta in Argentina.^[4] Lima bid for the games for the second consecutive time after losing to Toronto for the 2015 edition of the games. The other three cities bid for the Parapan American games for the first time. Lima was elected as the host city on October 11, 2013 where PASO members gathered in Toronto, Canada, to elect the host city.^[5] The city was considered the favourite to win the rights to host throughout the process.^[3]

2019 Pan American Games bidding results
City	NOC	Round 1
Lima	Peru	31
La Punta	Argentina	9
Santiago	Chile	9
Ciudad Bolívar	Venezuela	8

The events was held in various Lima districts and neighboring cities, with most of them concentrated in the clusters of VIDENA (a complex in the San Luis District), Pan American Park (Villa María del Triunfo), the Sports Village of Callao, and a sports complex in Costa Verde.

 

The total budget is estimated at US$1.2 billion, with $470 million in sports infrastructure, $180 million building the Pan American Village, $430 million spent in organization, and $106 million for other expenses.^[6]

2000 athletes and team officials was accommodated in a complex with 1,700 units in Villa El Salvador.

The torch was lit on August 20, in the Lima district of Pachacamac and took a 3-day tour within the city center from August 21 to 23, 2019.^[7]

The opening ceremony of the Games took place on August 23, 2019 at the Estadio Nacional de Lima while the closing ceremony took place on September 1, 2019 at the VIDENA Athletics Stadium.^[8][9] The opening ceremony was entitled Elevation and featured a stage designed as a totem, made by three obelisks. It was produced by Italian company Balich Worldwide Shows and directed by creative director Hansel Cereza. The closing ceremony was entitled Human Spirit and featured a stage with a backdrop of a mosaic of the faces of volunteers. It was produced by Italian company Balich Worldwide Shows and directed by creative director Juan Carlos Fisher.^[10][11]

The Ceremony began with a countdown from 10 to 0 and the announcement of President of Peru Martin Vizcarra and the President of Americas Paralympic Committee, Julio César Ávila. The Flag of Peru is raised by Peruvian Armed Forces as the National Anthem is played.

This was followed by an introductory performance titled "The Birth" symbolising Peru's biodiversity and life.^[12] The performance was followed immediately by the Parade of Nations in which each teams marched into the stadium, preceded by a person dressed as Ekeko carrying a chicha-style banner with the name of the country, similar to Pan American Games. As per tradition, Peru as host entered last, while the other countries entered under Spanish Alphabetical order.

Soon afterwards was the creative segments, divided into six segments: Symbiosis, The Maze, Chaos, Hope, The Horizon and Victory. All six segments told the story of two boys who grow up helping each other in the spirit of friendship and showing people their ability to overcome their disabilities. The boys as children were played by Jheremy Alejos Perez and Piero Guidiche Montes while the adult boys were played by Marco Antonio Moran and Jose Jesus Diaz Quispe.

In the protocol segment, the President of the Lima 2019 Organizing Committee Carlos Neuhaus and the President of APC, Julio Dussliere deliver their speeches before President of Peru, Martin Vizcarra declare the Games open. The APC flag was carried into the stadium by former Peruvian sportsmen: Efraín Sotacuro, Alicia Flores, Yeni Vargas, Juana Hurtado, María Trujillo, Israel Hilario, Óscar Neyra and Augusto Vásquez and raised to the Paralympic Anthem by the Armed Forces.

During the torch relay segment, the Parapan American flame is carried into the stadium by Peruvian Paralympian Pompilio Falconi, who competed in athletics at Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012. He passed the flame to table tennis player Teresa Chiappo, who then handed it to swimmer José González. Jose Gonzalez handed the flame to last torch bearer, Jimmy Eulert a gold medallist at the Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 Summer Paralympics who lights the Incan Sun cauldron with the help of the acrobats on the totem. The ceremony ended with a concert by Peruvian band "Bareto" who performed four songs: Quiero amanacer, Se ha muerto mi abuelo, No juegues con el diablo and Cariñito.^[13]

Order	Nation	Spanish	Flag bearer	Sport
1	Argentina (ARG)	Argentina	Gustavo Fernandez[14]	Wheelchair tennis
2	Aruba (ARU)	Aruba	Elliott Loonstra	Taekwondo
3	Barbados (BAR)	Barbados	Sean Cooke[15]	Athletics
4	Bermuda (BER)	Bermuda	Steve Wilson[16]	Boccia
5	Brazil (BRA)	Brasil	Leomon Moreno	Goalball
6	Canada (CAN)	Canadá	Stephanie Chan[17]	Table tennis
7	Chile (CHI)	Chile	Alberto Abarza	Swimming
8	Colombia (COL)	Colombia	Alejandro Perea	Cycling
9	Costa Rica (CRC)	Costa Rica	Camila Haase	Swimming
10	Cuba (CUB)	Cuba	Omara Durand	Athletics
11	Ecuador (ECU)	Ecuador	Darwin Castro	Athletics
12	El Salvador (ESA)	El Salvador	Herbert Aceituno	Powerlifting
13	United States (USA)	Estados Unidos de América	Kathryn Holloway[18]	Sitting volleyball
14	Guatemala (GUA)	Guatemala	Raúl Anguiano	Badminton
15	Guyana (GUY)	Guyana	Gibran Sarfaraz	Table tennis
16	Haiti (HAI)	Haití	Lounevie Pierre	Athletics
17	Honduras (HON)	Honduras	Carlos Velásquez	Athletics
18	Jamaica (JAM)	Jamaica	Chadwick Campbell[19]	Athletics
19	Mexico (MEX)	México	Eduardo Ávila	Judo
20	Nicaragua (NCA)	Nicaragua	Akira López	Athletics
21	Panama (PAN)	Panamá	Getrudis Ortega	Athletics
22	Paraguay (PAR)	Paraguay	Melissa Tillner	Athletics
23	Puerto Rico (PUR)	Puerto Rico	Javier Hernández	Swimming
24	Dominican Republic (DOM)	República Dominicana	José Manuel Abud	Powerlifting
25	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (VIN)	San Vicente y las Granadinas	John Jaldini	Swimming
26	Suriname (SUR)	Surinam	Chivaro Belfort	Athletics
27	Trinidad and Tobago (TTO)	Trinidad y Tobago	Nyoshia Cain[20]	Athletics
28	Uruguay (URU)	Uruguay	Carmelo Milán	Shooting
29	Venezuela (VEN)	Venezuela	Belkys Mota	Swimming
30	Peru (PER)	Perú	Leonor Espinoza[21]	Taekwondo

Katia Condos and Gonzalo Torres were the hosts of the ceremony. The segments of the ceremony were inspired by the core values of the International Paralympic Movement which are: Inspiration, Determination, Courage and Equality and featured mostly concert and dance performances by local artists. During the ceremony, Laguna Pai performed three songs: Libertad, Vamos con fe and Resiliencia; We The Lion performed four songs: Found Love, All My Demons, So Fine and When Life Began; and Desiree Nunez Del Prado and Javier Morales performed a Marinera duet.

After delivery of speech by President of the Organizing Committee Carlos Neuhaus and of the Americas Paralympic Committee (APC) Julio César Ávila, the Games were declared closed by APC president himself. Through President of the Americas Paralympic Committee, Julio César Ávila, Deputy Mayor of the city of Lima Miguel Eugenio Romero Sotelo handed the APC flag over to the Undersecretary of Sports of Chile, Andres Otero Klein for the next Parapan American Games in 2023. When the flag of Chile is raised by armed forces personnel, the National Anthem of Chile is performed by 14-year-old Cerebral Palsy female singer Isidora Guzmán, accompanied by images slideshow of the country's scenery. Chilean band Los Jaivas performed songs on stage to represent Chile as next host of the event. When Peruvian singer Eva Ayllón performed “Canción con todos” on stage, the Flame beside the stage was extinguished. The Ceremony ended with a concert by a cumbia group Hermanos Yaipén who performed five songs: Mix de Luis Miguel, El Tiki Taka, Al llorar a otra parte, Mix de Juan Gabriel and Que levante la mano.^[22]

30 National Paralympic Committees have participated at the games including Guyana and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines as debuting teams. Paraguay returned to participate after last competed in the 2007 edition, while Virgin Islands which last participated at the 2015 edition was absent.^[23]

IPC	Country	Athletes
BRA	Brazil	325
USA	United States	259
ARG	Argentina	213
MEX	Mexico	186
COL	Colombia	183
CAN	Canada	145
PER	Peru	138
VEN	Venezuela	93
CHI	Chile	87
CUB	Cuba	48
CRC	Costa Rica	39
ECU	Ecuador	28
PUR	Puerto Rico	22
DOM	Dominican Republic	19
GUA	Guatemala	19
ESA	El Salvador	16
PAN	Panama	14
JAM	Jamaica	9
HON	Honduras	5
NCA	Nicaragua	5
TRI	Trinidad and Tobago	5
URU	Uruguay	5
BER	Bermuda	4
PAR	Paraguay	3
GUY	Guyana	2
HAI	Haiti	2
ARU	Aruba	1
BAR	Barbados	1
SUR	Suriname	1
VIN	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	1

Events in 17 sports were held during the 2019 Parapan American Games. Cycling events was split into road and track disciplines. Team events goalball, sitting volleyball and wheelchair basketball continued as men's and women's events, wheelchair rugby continued to be a mixed event and football 5-a-side and football 7-a-side was only opened for male athletes. Badminton, taekwondo and para shooting made their debuts. Seven of the sports count as qualifying events for 2020 Summer Paralympics.

OC

Opening ceremony

●

Event competitions

1

Gold medal events

CC

Closing ceremony

August/September		22nd Thu	23rd Fri	24th Sat	25th Sun	26th Mon	27th Tue	28th Wed	29th Thu	30th Fri	31st Sat	1st Sun	Events
Ceremonies			OC									CC	—
Athletics				22	27	25	21	24					119
Badminton									●	●	5	3	8
Boccia									●	●	4	3	7
Cycling	Road cycling									5		8	13
	Track cycling					4	6						10
Football 5-a-side				●	●	●		●	●	1			1
Football 7-a-side				●	●	●		●	●		1		1
Goalball					●	●	●	●	●	●	2		2
Judo				5	5								10
Powerlifting									5	5	5		15
Shooting				2	2	2	2						8
Sitting volleyball			●	●	●	●	●	2					2
Swimming					19	22	19	19	19	19	23		140
Table tennis		●	1	14	●	●	5						20
Taekwondo										3	3		6
Wheelchair basketball				●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1		2
Wheelchair rugby			●	●	●	●	1						1
Wheelchair tennis				●	●	●	●	●	2	3			5
Daily medal events			1	43	53	53	54	45	26	38	43	14	370
Cumulative total			1	44	97	150	204	249	275	313	356	370
August/September		22nd Thu	23rd Fri	24th Sat	25th Sun	26th Mon	27th Tue	28th Wed	29th Thu	30th Fri	31st Sat	1st Sun	Events

^[24]

  *   Host nation (Peru)

Rank	NPC	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Brazil (BRA)	123	99	85	307
2	United States (USA)	58	62	65	185
3	Mexico (MEX)	55	58	45	158
4	Colombia (COL)	47	36	50	133
5	Argentina (ARG)	27	37	43	107
6	Canada (CAN)	17	21	22	60
7	Cuba (CUB)	13	10	16	39
8	Chile (CHI)	10	12	11	33
9	Ecuador (ECU)	5	6	5	16
10	Peru (PER)*	5	3	7	15
11	Venezuela (VEN)	2	10	21	33
12	Trinidad and Tobago (TTO)	2	1	1	4
13	Bermuda (BER)	2	1	0	3
14	Uruguay (URU)	1	0	1	2
15	El Salvador (ESA)	1	0	0	1
	Guatemala (GUA)	1	0	0	1
17	Dominican Republic (DOM)	0	4	1	5
18	Costa Rica (CRC)	0	3	1	4
19	Puerto Rico (PUR)	0	3	0	3
20	Jamaica (JAM)	0	2	2	4
21	Panama (PAN)	0	1	1	2
Totals (21 entries)		369	369	377	1,115

• 2019 Pan American Games

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2019 Parapan American Games.

• Official website (Archived September 9, 2019, at the Wayback Machine)
• Schedule and results
• Lima 2019 Parapan American Games on IPC website