2015 Parapan American Games

The 2015 Parapan American Games, officially the V Pan American Games and commonly known as the Toronto 2015 ParaPan-Am Games, were a major international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities, celebrated in the tradition of the Parapan American Games as governed by the Americas Paralympic Committee, held from August 7 to 15, 2015 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Marking the first Parapan American games hosted by Canada, and the second major Paralympic sports event hosted by Toronto since the 1976 Summer Paralympics, the Games were held at venues in Toronto and four other Golden Horseshoe communities.^[1] Both the Parapan American and Pan American Games were organized by the Toronto 2015 Organizing Committee (TO2015).

The Games hosted 1,608 athletes representing 28 National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) in the Americas. 445 events were held in 15 sports—all of which serving as qualifiers for the 2016 Summer Paralympics, including the debut of wheelchair rugby at the Parapan American Games, and the return of 7-a-side football following its absence from the 2011 Parapan American Games.

Bidding process

Toronto was selected by the Canadian Olympic Committee as the official bid city from Canada for the 2015 Parapan American Games

The Canadian Olympic Committee chose Toronto and the surrounding region as the Canadian candidate. No other Canadian city was given a chance to bid in a domestic race, and thus Toronto was selected without a vote.^[2] Toronto's interest in bidding came after failing to land the 1996 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics, which were held in Atlanta and Beijing respectively.

On February 23, 2009, both Toronto City Council and Hamilton City Council approved the bid officially and confirmed their intentions to support the successful hosting of the event.^[3] The official bid book document was submitted to the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) on May 27, 2009.^[4]

PASO made an evaluation visit to Toronto between August 30 and 31, 2009. The team analyzed the candidate city features and provided its feedback back to voting members of PASO. The evaluation committee was headed by Julio Maglione, a member of the IOC representing Uruguay and the head of Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), the international swimming federation. After the visit Maglione said, "Toronto has all the conditions to play host to the Pan American Games".^[5]

Toronto won the bidding process to host the Pan and Parapan American Games by a vote of the Pan American Sports Organization on November 6, 2009, at the PASO Session held in Guadalajara, Mexico. The result was announced by PASO President Mario Vázquez Raña.^[6] Toronto faced two other finalists shortlisted Lima, Peru, and Bogotá, Colombia. Toronto earned 33 votes, while contesting candidate cities Lima and Bogotá received 11 and 7 votes, respectively.^[7]

2015 Parapan American Games bidding results
City	NOC	Round 1
Toronto	Canada	33
Lima	Peru	11
Bogotá	Colombia	7

Development and preparation

Venues

Varsity Stadium: The archery venue.

Toronto became one of the most populous cities to ever hold the Parapan American Games. In August, the month when the Games was held, Toronto has an average temperature of 21 °C (70 °F). Toronto’s summer temperatures around August are warm, and the city averages less than five days with the temperature going above 30 °C (86 °F). As well in August Toronto averages about 67mm of precipitation. Moreover, Toronto's elevation is at 112 m (367 ft) above sea level, which provides optimal and ideal conditions for athletes.^[8]

In January 2012, the organizing committee announced that sixty percent of the originally proposed venues would be dropped, in favour of a clustering system seen at other multi-sport events such as the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Great Britain.^[9]

Athletes' living quarters were at the 2015 Pan American Games Athletes' Village.

The opening ceremonies was held at the CIBC Pan Am and Parapan Am Athletics Stadium and the closing ceremonies was held at Nathan Phillips Square. The Parapan Games re-used 12 venues from the Pan Am Games while one venue University of Toronto Scarborough Tennis Centre was newly constructed for the Parapan Am Games. Some of the competition venues in the Toronto area included the Pan American Field Hockey Centre, and the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre. Only four competition venues were located outside of Toronto:

• Markham Pan Am Centre in Markham
• Mississauga Sports Centre in Mississauga
• Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, Ontario
• Abilities Centre in Whitby

Infrastructure and budget

The Toronto 2015 Organizing Committee (TO2015) along with all three levels of government spent about $1.4 billion Canadian dollars in upgrading and building new venues in the region.^[10] The provincial government (Ontario) and the Canadian federal government provided 35% each of the funding, with the municipalities covering the remaining 30% of the cost. Also $1 billion Canadian dollars was spent on building an athletes' village in the West Don Lands area of Toronto. Therefore, the total cost was $2.4 billion, the highest ever spent for a Pan/Parapan American Games. Later in 2011 Toronto's contribution to the games almost doubled from $49.5 million to $96.5 million for several reasons: the athletics stadium was moved to York University from Hamilton, the soil was to be remediated at the University of Toronto Scarborough where the proposed aquatics centre is supposed to be built, more money was needed for the proposed BMX track and the increase in inflation.^[11] $700 million Canadian dollars was spent to build and renovate infrastructure in the region, about three times what was spent for the 2011 Pan American Games.^[12]

Many transit improvements in Toronto were made in time for these games. These included the Union Pearson Express airport rail link.^[13]

Medals

In October 2013 it was announced that the medals for the games would be produced and designed by the Royal Canadian Mint.^[14] In September 2014 it was announced that the supplier of the raw minerals used in the medals (over 4,000 in total) would be Barrick Gold. All the materials used in the medals will come from the company's operations in the Pan American region.^[15] The copper was mined at the company's Zaldivar mine in Chile, the silver at the Pueblo Viejo mine in the Dominican Republic and the gold was mined at the Hemlo mine in Northern Ontario.^[16]

The designs of the medals were revealed on March 3, 2015 at a ceremony at the Royal Ontario Museum. The medals are roughly 86.7 millimetres in diameter and weigh about 350 grams.^[17] The artist of the medals is Christi Belcourt. There are three shapes on the front of the medal representing North America, Central America and the Caribbean, and South America, the three regions that will be competing at the games, while also giving a feel and texture of the medal podium. The back of the medal represents the logo and motto of the games. The design also includes the elements and technique of mokume-gane.^[18][19]

Volunteers

The Parapan American Games required 7000 volunteers.^[20] It shared the same volunteer recruitment, selection, and training process as the Pan American Games, which drew over 63,000 applicants to become a volunteer.^[21]

Ticketing

Ticket sales began on March 25, 2015.^[22] More than 90,000 out of the 200,000 tickets available were sold.^[23]

Torch relay

The Parapan torch relay consisted of a 5-day journey, visiting 12 communities. Two torches were lit, one in the west at Niagara Falls and one in the east at Ottawa. Both make their way towards and reunite in Toronto.^[24]

Marketing

Mascot

Pachi the Porcupine

Pachi was chosen as the Games mascot in 2013. The design was based on porcupine. Porcupines have relatively poor vision, so the choice of basing Pachi's design on a porcupine is said to be a symbolic bond with the athletes of the Parapan Games.^[25]

The Games

Participating nations

28 nations competed at the Games.

Sports

Fifteen sports, the most ever for a Parapan American Games were contested. Wheelchair rugby made its debut at the Games, while Football 7-a-side made its return to the games after missing the 2011 Parapan American Games.^[26] All fifteen sports were used for Paralympic qualification in 2016.^[26]

Reception

The president of the Americas Paralympic Committee, Jose Luis Campo described the Games "the best Parapan American Games ever".^[27]

Calendar

OC

Opening ceremony

●

Event competitions

1

Event finals

CC

Closing ceremony

August	7 Fri	8 Sat	9 Sun	10 Mon	11 Tue	12 Wed	13 Thu	14 Fri	15 Sat	Events
Ceremonies	OC								CC
Archery			●	4						4
Athletics				22	25	22	20	26		115
Boccia		●	●	●	4					4
Cycling		10			4					14
Football 5-a-side		●	●	●		●	●	1		1
Football 7-a-side		●	●	●		●	●		1	1
Goalball		●	●	●	●	●		1	1	2
Judo						4	4	5		13
Powerlifting		5	3	8	4					20
Sitting volleyball		●	●	●	●	●	●	2		2
Swimming		16	15	19	17	17	17	15		116
Table tennis		●	●	17	●	●	7			24
Wheelchair basketball		●	●	●	●	●	●	1	1	2
Wheelchair rugby		●	●	●	●	●	●	1		1
Wheelchair tennis		●	●	●	●	●	2	2		4
Total events		31	18	70	59	43	50	54	3	328
Cumulative total		31	49	119	178	221	271	325	328	N/A
August	7 Fri	8 Sat	9 Sun	10 Mon	11 Tue	12 Wed	13 Thu	14 Fri	15 Sat	Events

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Brazil	109	74	74	257
2	Canada	50	63	55	168
3	United States	40	51	44	135
4	Mexico	38	36	39	113
5	Colombia	24	36	30	90
6	Cuba	19	15	13	47
7	Argentina	18	25	24	67
8	Venezuela	8	14	25	47
9	Chile	4	2	6	12
10	Jamaica	2	2	1	5
11	Trinidad and Tobago	2	0	0	2
12	Ecuador	1	0	4	5
13	Bermuda	1	0	0	1
13	Uruguay	1	0	0	1
15	Nicaragua	0	0	4	4
16	Costa Rica	0	0	2	2
16	Puerto Rico	0	0	2	2
18	Dominican Republic	0	0	1	1
Total		317	318	324	959

See also

• 2015 Pan American Games

References

Further reading

Archival holdings

Toronto 2015 Pan Am & Parapan American Games—Web archive collected by the University of Toronto Libraries

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2015 Parapan American Games.

• Official website