The Closing Ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games Sunday will celebrate more than 500 Paralympic athletes from 44 countries and their achievements of athletic excellence over the past 10 days.
The ceremony takes place outdoors at Whistler Medal’s Plaza, and tributes to the athletes will be offered by performers from across Canada, including Quebec’s folk band La Bottine Souriante and Whistler Youth, and 45 singers from the Sea to Sky corridor, who will kick-start the Parade of Athletes.
Winnipeg’s Chantal Kreviazuk is the headline performer to be followed by Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq.
Whistler’s Ali Milner will sing O Canada – the inspiration for the Games motto “With Glowing Hearts” – as a basketball-court size Canadian flag is unfurled above the athletes’ heads. He will be joined by 185 voices from the Sea to Sky Chorus, while on-screen and live on Whistler Mountain 125 skiers of all ages and abilities will ski a torch parade down the slopes bearing bright red flares to honour Canada as Paralympic host country.
One male and one female athlete who have demonstrated an exceptional level of determination to overcome adversities through sports in the Games will be awarded the Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award, named after Korea’s first medical doctor with a disability who has devoted her life to development of disabled sports and the promotion of human rights for people with disabilities.
The Paralympic Flag will be lowered and passed on to Sochi 2014. The flame will be passed from the youth of Canada to the youth of Russia.
To close the show, Soul Funktion Studio Dancers will perform an “explosive” dance finale as a flash of fireworks ignite the sky signalling to all that, with one final exuberant burst of light and sound, the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games have concluded.
Paralympic Ceremony Executive Producer Patrick Roberge said, “there is a fun party atmosphere about it, but there is also a sentimental farewell aspect about it as well”.
The Closing Ceremony had to undergo some changes to infrastructure and timing to make it easier for live television, since, according to Roberge, they hadn’t anticipated as many broadcasters would air the show live. He added, “as far as the content of the show, we have made no changes to the content”.
As for the weather, since the ceremony is being held outdoors and the weather for Sunday is expected to be rainy or potentially snowy, Roberge said, “if it is wet, we want everybody to come ready for wet. With glowing hearts we are going to persevere through no matter what the weather is. It would be great if it was a little light dusting of snow though. It would make the show look spectacular”. But he said he could change some elements of the program at the last minute if the weather really isn’t cooperating”.
