AKIPRESS.COM - Athletes from 45 countries have arrived in Sochi to participate in the Winter Paralympic Games, ITAR-TASS reported referring to the International Paralympic Committee.

The opening ceremony will take place at the Fisht Stadium on March 7.

Preparation works for the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games will be concluded by March 5, Russian Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak noticed earlier.

Within nine days of the Winter Paralympics between March 7 and 16 a total of 72 sets of medals would be up for grabs.

“All facilities comply with the international standards of the barrier-free environment,” Kozak said adding that Sochi is currently in the so-called transitional period after the Olympic Games and before the Paralympics.

“We are currently implementing the plan of the transitional period, when the image of the city must be changed and the Olympics symbolic must be replaced with the Paralympic,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Russian President stressed the Paralympic Games is a logical continuation of the Olympics. He recalled that in 1948, in Great Britain, a competition of wheelchair disabled people of World War Two was held for the first time, and that later turned into Paralympic movement.

The President noted that Russia, as the host of the Paralympics, would be pleased with successes of all teams. He promised that he would come to attend an opening ceremony of the Paralympics.