With only six months to go until the Opening Ceremony for the Rio Paralympic Games, media surrounding the Games is picking up. Be on the look out for promo videos on NBC, like the one with Chuck Aoki below, and the most recent Dick’s Sporting Goods Contender commercial, featuring Desi Miller from the USA Women’s Wheelchair basketball team. Sir Phillip Craven, president of the International Paralympic Committee, was quoted today stating “Rio 2016 Paralympics will be a catalyst to grow disability awareness in the United States.” This is largely due to the groundbreaking coverage of the Rio Games that NBC Sports will be providing.
USAWR will begin its journey to the Games with a six-game home series against Team Sweden in two weeks. Games will be played at Lakeshore Foundation in Birmingham, Ala. and begin on March 22 at 10 a.m. The full schedule can be found on the home page, and all games will be free and open to the public. In April, the team will travel to Paris for its 2016 Rio Qualification tournament, and the top two finishers will fill the last two spots for the the Rio Games.