Brazil, powerhouse of the Parapan American Games, came to Santiago to take more glory

Brazil is a powerhouse in Para sports within the Americas region. There is no other way around it. Therefore, for the Santiago 2023 Parapan American Games, they are the favourites to top the medal table. Again. As they have done in the last four editions of the competition.

“We hope for victory. We all (the Brazilian athletes) came to win here, we train hard and for us it is important”, said Lucicleia da Costa, an experienced wheelchair basketball player, with even two Paralympic Games under her name.

“We hope to produce results and the biggest number of medals possible. But we don’t have pressure, we still have fun, we just know that the results will come along”, added Evani Calado, from the sport of boccia.

That confidence comes not just because the effort in the past months has been put. It comes also based on statistics and history. After the first two Parapan American Games in Mexico City, in 1999, and Mar del Plata, in 2003, where Mexico accumulated the most amount of gold and total medals, the Brazilian representatives turned on the engine and never looked back.

They reached the top of the table in Rio de Janeiro 2007 (83 gold medals, 68 silver and 77 bronze), Guadalajara 2011 (81, 61, 55), Toronto 2015 (109, 74, 74) and Lima 2019 (123, 99, 85). That is the goal in Santiago too, according to the slogan that covers their building within the Athlete's Village: “Podio todo dia”, which translates to “Podium every day”.

“For our society, sports are just something natural. Our Paralympic Committee invests a lot in our athletes, we have a big and developed structure to help us and that definitely makes a difference”, said Para powerlifter Lara de Lima.

“Our committee helps a lot. In São Paulo we have an amazing Paralympic Training Centre (inaugurated in 2016), which gives us many opportunities to improve. And, little by little, athletes from other regions are getting more support, which strengthens the whole movement”, explained da Silva.

The Brazilian Paralympic Training Centre caters facilities for 15 Para sports and at the moment of its creation was the biggest of its kind in the world.

Calado also added that the support has been increasing in society too, mainly after Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which created more awareness about Para sports and more recognition for people with disabilities within the country.

For the 2023 Games, the Brazilian delegation is formed by 324 athletes, some of them even Paralympic champions and a lot of them Parapan American champions. Is the biggest of all the 31 participating nations.

Two famous names that fit that headline at the same time are Para swimmer Maria Carolina Gomes, who won three golds in Tokyo 2020 and will defend four titles from Lima 2019, and Para athlete Petrúcio Ferreira, who won gold medals in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 and will defend two titles from Lima 2019 too (which he also won in Toronto 2015).

Nevertheless, Brazil is not just set to shine in individual sports. As Paralympic champions in goalball and blind football, the gold medal in Santiago should be the logical objective too.

The 2023 Parapan American Games will officially open in 17 November and will close on the 26th.

Almost 2,000 athletes from 31 countries will compete in 17 different sports.

This will be the seventh edition of the biggest Para sport event in the Americas and it is a major stop on the road to Paris 2024 in multiple disciplines, which will offer qualification spots to the Paralympics.