CT Paralímpico turns 10 years old and focuses on training athletes

One of the main legacies of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, the Brazilian Paralympic Training Center (CTPB), located in São Paulo, completed 10 years last Saturday (23).

The space has become a symbol of excellence in parasports in Latin America, and, throughout this decade of existence, it has already made its name in history with 67 world records set on its tracks, pools and fields.

But the CTPB wants to go further and has been investing and also contributing to the training of new athletes.

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To CNN, Ramon Pereira, director of sports development at the Brazilian Paralympic Committee (CPB), explained that the change in focus at the Paralympic CT took place in 2018, two years after its inauguration. Until then, only high-performance athletes were served.

According to Ramon, planning did not begin with a focus on discovering new talent, but rather on the need for inclusion through sport.

"We changed our ideology exactly with this concern, because today the reality in many regular schools is that the physical activity teacher often does not have the information to carry out inclusive planning. And this, consequently, brings a huge social loss, because the child's self-esteem is directly shaken", he explained.

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Reference
The fourth largest Paralympic training center in the world, the CTPB offers indoor and outdoor facilities for training, competitions and exchanges in 20 Paralympic sports.

With 95 thousand square meters of built area, athletes have access to athletics tracks, an aquatic center, adapted courts, training rooms, medicine and sports science spaces, as well as a hotel with around 300 beds, a cafeteria, laundry and administrative areas.

Overview of the Paralympic Training Center - Alessandra Cabral/CPB
Choices and experimentation of modalities
In addition to the structure for grassroots athletes and professionals who already compete, the CT also has the Paralympic School. With the aim of promoting children's introduction to sport, the school covers 15 sports and welcomes children and teenagers up to the age of 17.

What is very interesting: when a student, for example, who is visually impaired, comes to us, he experiments with the modalities that are eligible for him. So we are talking here about football for the blind, swimming, athletics, goalball, which is a sport specific to the visually impaired, and judo. So at the end of this process, which lasts about two years, we encourage this student to be in a modality in which he performs best.

Ramon Pereira, director of sports development at CPB

Despite the encouragement to choose the sport in which they are best, the child has the freedom to remain in the sport they prefer.

"For example, if he has a fantastic performance in athletics, but wants to stay in swimming. That's fine, he will stay in swimming. It's this feeling that we create in our children, to respect their decisions. And why is that? Because when he becomes a high-performance athlete, he will have to make his own decisions, be it on the track, on the court, in the pool, wherever he is", he added.

Leticia Sanches, athlete from the Paralympic Sports School, during a match at the Camping Escolar Paralímpico, at the CT Paralímpico, in São Paulo - Alessandra Cabral/CPB
Classes are available free of charge to the population and always take place in the afternoon, from 2pm to 3:30pm and from 4pm to 5:30pm. In addition to classes, students receive snacks after activities and training uniforms, as well as the necessary sports equipment.

Located in Parque Fontes do Ipiranga, in the south of São Paulo, the CT Paralímpico currently serves 536 students, but has capacity for a thousand. To register, simply access the official CPB website.

CT's "Children" at the Paralympic Games
With the CT's change of focus from 2018 onwards, the expectation was that the first high-performance athletes trained there would only reach the 2028 Paralympic Games. But the expectation was exceeded.

CT's "children" are already bringing significant results.

Alessandra Oliveira, graduated from the Paralympic School of Sports, swims in the 100m breaststroke at the Brazilian Youth Championship - Alan Morici
Alessandra Oliveira, for example, entered the Paralympic School in 2018, where she started swimming. In 2025, he won two more at the World Cup in Singapore. Before that, he had already won several medals at the 2023 Parapan American Games.

"In the last Parapan, in Chile, 60% of the athletes already participated in our projects, 22 of these athletes are specifically from here, from this project, from the Paralympic School. From the Reference Centers we had 48 students who represented Brazil", said Ramon.

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Source: CNN