Great Britain's Ellie Simmonds: This is what I want to achieve at the Rio Paralympics
ELLIE SIMMONDS hopes the Rio Paralympics inspire and captivate the British public just like last month’s Olympic Games.
Meet this year's 2016 Paralympic superhumans
The Paralympics will open tonight with a spectacular opening ceremony at the Maracana.
Team GB won a record 67 medals at the Olympics less than three weeks ago, their best performance at an overseas Games.
Britain has sent a squad of 264 Paralympians to Rio and Simmonds wants to see the momentum of nationwide goodwill continue over the next fortnight.
“I really hope the goodwill we saw at the Olympics continues,” said the 21-year-old. “I hope the crowds respond like they did for Team GB. And I hope the media showcase it like they did in London, because London was a phenomenal Games.
“It was great watching Team GB in the Olympics and that will really inspire us in the next couple of weeks.”
“Rio will put their own spin on it, like Beijing did before, and it will be different.
“I’m just focusing on what I need to do, it will be a great Games no matter what. We’re going to go out there and have fun. We’re just going to go out there and swim as fast as we can.
“Whatever the situation is, I’m just going to go out and enjoy my third Paralympics.”
There have been major concerns over the past few days that some Paralympic track and field athletes are being deliberately mismatched.
Paralympics boss Sir Philip Craven has defended the system that classifies disabled athletes after claims it is being manipulated to boost medals.
Tim Hollingsworth, chief executive of the British Paralympic Association, is defiant that Britain are not cheating.
He said: “We have got nobody going into the Games in our view who doesn’t have the appropriate classification for their class and I’m confident that within that we should feel their in the correct class.
“We are here to win medals, but we’re absolutely here to win medals both within letter and spirit of the Paralympics.”
Lee Pearson has been nominated to carry the British flag at the opening ceremony.