About 500 Torchbearers will carry the Flame during the seven-day event, while the public will be invited to take part through digital media.

“We want to invite people from across Brazil and all over the planet to participate and send a little of their warmth and energy to create the Paralympic Games Flame,” said Andrew Parsons, President of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee, vice-president of the International Paralympic Committee and head of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Integration Committee.

A city will be selected from all five Brazilian regions - the North, North East, Central-West, South East and South - with each having its own Relay culminating in a mini Paralympic cauldron being lit.

Another will be lit in Stoke Mandeville before all six flames are sent to Rio, where they will combine to form the Paralympic Flame.

This will be carried around Rio on September 6 and 7, ending with the lighting of the Paralympic cauldron during the Opening Ceremony of the Games at the Maracanã Stadium.

The details of the Torch Relay were announced as part of the 500 days to go celebrations, which were held officially on Sunday (April 26).

About 200 dancers, some of them in wheelchairs, gathered at the Copacabana beach to perform routines that blended traditional Brazilian samba and forró with contemporary dance, hip-hop and Brazilian funk.

Tom, the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games mascot, joined in, while a series of recorded voices announced “500 days to the Paralympic Games” in a number of languages, including French, Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish and Russian.


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