Sochi Winter Paralympics break attendance and viewership records

Sochi, March 10 (IANS): 48 hours after the opening of the Winter Paralympics, the Games have already broken records of ticket sales and online visitors, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said.

IPC director of media and communications Craig Spence Sunday said that by Saturday, the Games had sold 287,000 tickets, beating the previous record set in 2010 Vancouver by 57,000, reports Xinhua.

45,000 people visited the Olympic Park Saturday and more than 2,000 attended the evening medals ceremony in Rosa Khutor, Spence added.

The IPC website also received more visits in the past few days. By 1 pm Moscow time Sunday, nearly 85 percent more people had visited the IPC website than they did four years ago, highlighting the growing appeal of the Paralympics.

“We are delighted to break two significant records so early during Sochi 2014,” Spence said, adding that the Organising Committee has made great efforts in raising Paralympic awareness which helped ticket sales reach the record high.

The Paralympics will run until March 16. A record 45 countries are taking part in 72 medal events across five sports: Alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, ice sledge hockey and wheelchair curling.