Toronto’s sporting achievements continue with the Parapan American Games, which opened on Friday evening with the lighting of a cauldron at the new CIBC Pan Am/Parapan Am Athletics Stadium at York University. 

“The Parapan Am Games are a jaw-dropping display of the power of human beings to excel, to overcome and to be strong,” said Mayor John Tory. “We are excited and ready to welcome athletes and visitors to our great city for these Games. Residents, visitors and a new generation of future athletes will be inspired. Toronto has already seen great triumphs with the Pan Am Games and we will see more with the Parapan Am Games.”

Toronto is hosting the largest ever Parapan Am Games, with more than 1,600 athletes from 28 countries compete in 15 sports at 11 different competition venues. The Parapan Am Games will officially begin when the cauldron is lit at this evening.

The 2015 Parapan American Games serve as a qualifier for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games in all sports.

Venues in Toronto are hosting top athletes from across the Americas in archery, athletics, cycling (road), football 5-a-side, football 7-a-side, sitting volleyball, swimming, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis.

The new Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre (CIBC Pan Am Aquatics Centre and Field House) in Scarborough hosts the swimming and sitting volleyball events. After the Games, the facility will serve as a world-class water sports training centre as well as the home of the Wheelchair Basketball Canada National Academy. 

Owned by the City of Toronto and the University of Toronto, the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre will open to the community after the Parapan Am Games to provide health and recreation opportunities for Toronto residents and the local community.

The cultural celebration for the Games, PANAMANIA Live continues through the Parapan Am Games. Nathan Phillips Square is hosting free performances from some of the hottest names in Canadian and American popular music.

The City of Toronto is urging visitors and residents to make full use of the city’s public transit system, which it says has the second largest in North America and has the highest per capita ridership rate on the continent.

Toronto is Canada’s largest city and the fourth largest in North America. The city is said to be contemplating a bid for the 2024 or 2028 Olympic Games and the 2025 World Expo. 

Toronto’s sports venues are set to be packed out in July, with many of the highest profile events of the Pan American Games selling out fast. 

Tickets for the Opening Ceremony have already sold out while the men’s football (soccer) gold medal game is experiencing some of the highest demand.

Other events for which tickets are keenly sought after include the medal rounds for aquatics, track cycling, BMX, canoe/kayak slalom, beach volleyball and equestrian jumping, where few tickets remain available.

Organisers also expect the men’s baseball and basketball gold medal matches to be packed out, with just a few tickets left on sale. 

“Tickets to see those memorable medal moments are selling quickly,” said Saäd Rafi, chief executive officer of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games Organizing Committee (TO2015). 

275,000 tickets to the Pan Am Games have already been sold to sports fans paying upwards of US$16 per ticket. 

“The numbers are beyond our expectations — especially since we haven’t yet announced when Team Canada will be playing, not to mention the countless athletes from across the Americas who are still in the process of qualifying for the Games.

“That said, it was no surprise that the available tickets to our Opening Ceremony, produced by Cirque de Soleil, went fast. It’s sure to be an unforgettable night.”

Other popular events include the athletics track and field 100m finals and 4x100m finals, the rugby sevens finals, the beach and indoor volleyball finals and the closing ceremony, with entertainment provided by Live Nation.

“The Games are a once-in-a-generation chance to see our most elite summer Games athletes compete on home soil and to be part of the high-energy crowd who will be cheering them on and singing our anthem together,” said Rafi.

The sales campaign for the Toronto 2015 Parapan Am Games starts in spring 2015. From 7-15, August, some of the world’s best para-athletes will be competing for their chance to go to the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

2014 was full of questions about Rio’s readiness to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games but, according to International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president Sir Philip Craven, people can afford to relax in the knowledge that the city will deliver on time.

“1 January 2015 marks exactly 615 days to go until the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games and I can assure you that my excitement is growing by the day,” Sir Craven said in his annual New Year’s message.

“The Organising Committee has done a great deal of work in 2014, most recently highlighted by the successful launch of the Paralympic mascot Tom. I’m also delighted Rio 2016 has formed a Paralympic Integration Committee which is led by IPC Vice President Andrew Parsons.

“The last full year before the Paralympics is always vital and, in 2015, Rio will be staging a number of test events, as well as the Chef de Mission seminar, as their preparations gear up for the final push.

“People are a little more relaxed now they are seeing the venues grow in size each day and I am fully confident everything will be ready for our Games and that Rio will deliver a truly spectacular event. The atmosphere in Rio will be amazing; the Carioca like to party, and I hope Rio 2016 is one big party for the spectators and for the athletes (once they have competed of course!).”

Rio 2016 is of huge importance to the Paralympic movement. 

Speaking on 7 September 2014, two years before the start of the 2016 Paralympic Games, Craven said “Rio 2016 will be South America’s first Paralympic Games opening up a whole new continent to the power of the Paralympic spirit and Paralympic sport.

“I believe the Games can be transformational not just for Rio and Brazil, but the whole of the Americas and the Paralympic Movement.”

Although 2015 is not a Paralympic year, the large number of qualifying championships taking place will make the year one of the IPC’s busiest ever. 

“Arguably the biggest and most important sporting event of the year is August’s Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games which will feature 1,600 athletes from 28 countries competing in 15 sports,” said Sir Philip.

“It is vital that Toronto 2015 is a success and that we leverage the event to generate greater awareness of the Paralympic Movement in the Americas ahead of Rio 2016.”

In his address, Sir Philip also cited the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games as the IPC’s Top Moment of 2014. 

After bidding for the 1996 and 2008 Summer Olympics, Toronto turned to the 2015 Pan American Games to bring an international mega event to the city. The Ontarian city was picked by the Pan American Sports Organisation (PASO) over rival cities Lima and Bogota to host the 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games.

The organising committee of Toronto 2015 has heralded these Games as being particularly environmentally friendly as well as being twice the size of the Winter Olympics held in Vancouver in 2010. The organising committee is planning a spend of US$2.2bn on the event – the most ever spent on a Pan American Games.

A Games this big, held in Canada’s most populous city, needs a huge yet reliable level of infrastructure. US$641 million has been set aside for building and renovating infrastructure in the city. That’s where Allen Vansen, the executive vice-president of operations, sport and venue management, comes in.

Vansen was the former vice-president of Triathlon Canada as well as being the vice-president of Workforce Operations and Integration at the Vancouver 2010 Games before coming to work on the Toronto 2015 organising committee.

His experiences in Vancouver were vital in providing a benchmark for the level of service required at the Pan-American Games, he says. “Working on the Pan-American Games has given us a license to be as innovative as we can be and I think that’s one of the things we’ve really taken to heart as we’ve looked at London and some elements of Sochi in terms of things we can do a little bit differently.”

The organising committee selected two vastly experienced organisations as technology partners in order to achieve this innovation. IT services corporation Atos and networking equipment giant Cisco were chosen as two of the ‘Premier Partners’ of the Games. Atos are the official Games systems integration partner and official provider of timing, scoring and results – crucial Games infrastructure, according to Vansen.

“When you get down to it, nothing’s more important in a Games than the sport and competition and of course timing, scoring and the publishing of those results in critically important. We know with Atos we have a fantastic provider who has tons of Games experience to bring to the table to ensure we deliver those core critical systems.”

Meanwhile, Cisco will be providing the event with wireless network security, unified computing, cloud services, customised Cisco operated stadium Wi-Fi and stadium vision solutions. “With Cisco one of the things we’re pretty excited about is the video and telepresence opportunities that happen for our media at our main press centre,” says Vansen.

But with innovations in technology, communications and networking comes heightened security risks.

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