Para athletes and officials including the Chilean Sports Minister heard how the landmark Paralympic venue at the Santiago 2023 Parapan American Games was more than half finished ©Santiago 2023

Chile’s Sports Minister Jaime Pizarro and Gianna Cunazza, chief executive of the Santiago 2023 Pan American and Parapan American Games, were among the guests at a landmark Paralympic facility that will host fencing, goalball and blind football, and is more than halfway towards completion.

Work on the Centro de Deportes Paralímpicos, inside the Parque Estadio Nacional, is estimated to be 56 per cent complete, with the Parapan American Games due to run from November 17 to 26, after the Pan American Games from October 20 to November 5.

The venue will be one of the greatest legacies of the continental event and the most modern precinct in Latin America for the development of Paralympic sports.

It will also include a synthetic football pitch.

"This will be the house for Paralympic sports, their families, and friends," Pizarro said.

"They’ll have in this wonderful place an option to develop such great competitions during the Games, and they’ll also have the chance to keep training in the future and having more activity here.

"Concentrating a big part of the activity in this precinct is a fantastic milestone."

A party including Paralympic athletes and the Chilean Sports Minister Jaime Pizarro visited the Para sport Centre that will provide one of the main legacies of the 2023 Pan American and Parapan American Games in Santiago ©Santiago 2023
A party including Paralympic athletes and the Chilean Sports Minister Jaime Pizarro visited the Para sport Centre that will provide one of the main legacies of the 2023 Pan American and Parapan American Games in Santiago ©Santiago 2023

The President of the Chilean Paralympic Committee Sebastián Villavicencio, expressed his satisfaction with the development of the project.

"For all the Paralympic Movement this is a historic milestone," he said.

"For a long time we’ve been wandering around different sport precincts in order to develop our sports and this current progress will definitely help with the progress of the international Paralympic sport. 

"There will be a turning point."

Cunazza added: "This precinct is part of the legacy these Games will leave, and along with other venues, it fulfils high accessibility standards that surpass the Chilean standard. 

"Santiago 2023 is regulated by the accessibility guide of the International Paralympic Committee and a lot of those buildings also meet these standards."

The officials were accompanied on their visit by a group of leading Paralympic athletes.

Para athlete Tamara Leonelli, gold medallist in C5 class table tennis during the last Parapan American Games said: "We’re happy and proud of the work we’ve been doing because it’s progressing in a wonderful way.

"We’ve been practicing in different places so we can develop our disciplines, and to have the chance now to count with an exclusive precinct for us makes us very happy."