Mr Medvedev thanked the sportspeople for their immense winning spirit and impressive skill. Sports victories are not just personal triumphs and medals, the President said, but are a sign of the nation’s physical and moral health. Physical culture and sport provides many people with a valuable means of social adaptation.
The state will develop sports facilities for people with impaired health, open adaptive sports sections in sports schools, and build modern training and rehabilitation centres for Paralympics athletes, Mr Medvedev said. He also announced that medallists at the XIII Paralympics will receive the same amount of prize money as medallists at the XXIX Olympic Games in Beijing.
Russia’s Paralympics team was one the world’s top ten teams, winning 18 gold, 23 silver and 22 bronze medals.