Rio Preto City Hall

Saturday (4) started early, at 6am, with the first comprehensive training promoted by Unimed Institute, with support from Unimed Rio Preto and City Hall.

About 450 amateur and professional athletes and people with different disabilities – motor, visual and intellectual – participated. Every athlete engages in a training that respects their limits, whether it’s walking, running, cycling or other physical activity on a 5.2 km trail at Avenida Juscelino Kubistcheck, near the Iguatemi Shopping Centre.

The president of the association explained that “the goal of the training is to promote social integration and diversity, encourage the practice of sports and quality of life, in addition to raising awareness about equal rights and the need to provide opportunities for people with disabilities in general.” Unimed Rio Preto Institute, Gilmar Valder Greg.

In celebration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which is observed on the third Friday, the events encourage exercise and a quality of life for all. Some city athletic advisors and other volunteers supported the training and event participants.

The mayor participated in the tournament, walking side by side with the athletes and their families. “Inclusion is a motto, in every sense of the word: socially, economically and also in sport that enhances, develops and transforms people. We always participate, because we want Rio Preto to be an inclusive city, with no one on the sidelines. The government is doing its part in reverse inclusion, improving Public facilities and the provision of more high-quality spaces for all to exercise.

At the Regional Events Center, another event also marked the International Day of Persons with Disabilities – the Paralympic Festival, which brought together children and adolescents from 8 to 17 years old with or without a disability who participated in physical activities.

For the third year in a row, Rio Preto hosted the Paralympic Festival event, in partnership with the Brazilian Paralympic Committee – CPB, with Clube Amigo dos Deficients, CAD and Rio Preto City Hall through the Municipal Sports Department.

Paralympic athlete Paulo Gatuba, President of the Center for Friends of the Disabled and one of the organizers of the event, highlighted that “the aim of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee is to give children and adolescents the opportunity to experience sports activities in Paralympic methods of table tennis, judo and athletics, and also to promote the so-called reverse participation, which is the integration with children others who are not disabled, and to integrate this audience and its socialization through sport,” he said.

Approximately 150 disabled and non-disabled children and adolescents, ages 8-17, practicing or not in Paralympic sports in the city and the region participated in the event, which also collaborated with more than 50 physical education trainees from the city. Universities and specialized volunteers.

Mayor Edinho Araujo participated in a table tennis activity where he played a match with student from Associação Renascer, Xailane. The 17-year-old athlete, Rio Pretense, is the current Brazilian school Olympic champion of the State of São Paulo, and the gold medalist in table tennis mode. Mayor Edinho added: “Today it doesn’t matter if you are a hero or not, the main goal is to share and keep this experience in your memory forever.”