In an August social experiment, Brazilian para-athletes gave Rio de Janeiro gym-goers a taste of what they’ll see one year from now at the Paralympic Games.
Rio 2016 Paralympic hopefuls in weightlifting, track and field and judo showed up at gyms, received veering looks and then promptly outperformed their astonished peers.
Weightlifter Luciano Dantas bench pressed more than twice his body weight, visually impaired judoka Lucia Teixeira floored a Rio judo champion and amputee sprinter Vinicius Rodrigues ran more than 15 miles per hour on a treadmill.
The first Paralympics in South America begin Sept. 7, 2016.
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