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Olympics Channel 4 Paralympics

Channel 4 remains hopeful as Paralympic Games faces major cuts to venues, workforce and transport

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By Gillian West, Social media manager

August 20, 2016 | 2 min read

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has confirmed that the Paralympic Games will go ahead as planned despite funding issues.

With a little over two weeks until the Games, IPC president Sir Philip Craven, said: "Never before in the 56-year history of the Paralympic Games have we faced circumstances like this," confirming a number of major budget cuts to this year's competition will affect venues, workforce and transport.

Brazil's struggling economy and the fact that only 12 per cent of Games tickets have been sold are contributing factors to the funding troubles which have left organisers behind in paying travel grants to help get athletes to Rio.

However, Rio's mayor, Eduardo Paes, has now secured an additional £36m of funding and £24m of sponsorship after an injunction, that was blocking further state aid for the Games, was lifted.

According to reports, the cuts will not affect security forces currently in place for the Olympics which will remain in place for the Paralympics, however, a number of venue media centres will be closed with events moved to other venues to enable Deodoro Park to be dismantled.

Craven added the cuts were "likely to impact nearly every stakeholder at the Games" admitting that, at present, there at 10 countries who, even if funding comes through, "may struggle to cover the cost of theta travels to the Games."

The UK's official Paralympic broadcaster, Channel 4, remains hopeful of a successful Games despite the cuts, with a spokesperson telling The Drum: "We are focussed on delivering fantastic coverage of the Rio Paralympics to UK audiences.

"We have everything in place to make sure our viewers won't miss any of the excitement, particularly in event where British Paralympians are going for gold. It's going to be an amazing spectacle of elite sport and we cannot wait to bring all the action and the excitement from Rio to viewers in the UK."

The Paralympic Games are due to start on 7 September. Ahead of the Games Channel 4 has won praise for its 'We're the Superhumans' ad push.

Olympics Channel 4 Paralympics

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