The Americas Paralympic Committee (APC) has announced that the Lima 2019 Parapan American Games will feature a record 1,850 athletes who will compete in 17 sports, two more than Toronto 2015.

The announcement was made following a three day meeting (28 February-1 March) in the Peruvian capital between the APC and Lima 2019 Organising Committee (COPAL). At the conclusion of the meeting on Tuesday (1 March), six people - Jose Luis Campo, APC President; Luis Salazar, President of COPAL; Xavier Gonzalez, IPC Chief Executive Officer; Saúl Barrera, President of the Sports Institute of Peru; José Arista, Executive Director of the Special Project for Lima 2019 and Luisa Villar, President of NPC Peru - signed an agreement confirming that Lima would stage the biggest ever Parapan American Games.

The 17 sports that will make up the Lima 2019 Parapan American Games sport programme are: athletics, badminton, boccia, cycling, football 5-a-side, football 7-a-side, goalball, judo, powerlifting, shooting, sitting volleyball, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair tennis. Archery has been removed from the sports programme, whilst badminton, shooting and taekwondo all feature for the first time in the Games which will take place at the end of August 2019.

In addition to agreeing the sports programme, during their time in Lima, the APC delegation, which included IPC CEO Xavier Gonzalez, was updated on various functional areas and preparations for the Games. The group also visited a number of venues that may be used to stage the Games in three years’ time.

Jose Luis Campo, APC President said: “This agreement is a significant milestone in the growth of the Paralympic Movement in the Americas as it means Lima will stage the biggest ever Parapan American Games in 2019 with 250 athletes and two sports more than Toronto 2015.

“Following the success of the Toronto 2015 Games and this September’s Rio 2016 Paralympic Games it is vital that the Paralympic Movement continues to move forward in the Americas. This agreement will go some way to achieving this.

“I would like to thank the Lima 2019 Organising Committee, led by their President Luis Salazar, for their co-operation and commitment. We look forward to working with them to ensure Lima 2019 builds on the success of Toronto 2015.

“Following their inclusion in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, both badminton and taekwondo will feature for the first time at a Parapan American Games alongside shooting. We believe the sports programme for Lima 2019 features an exciting mixture of mass participation sports from the Americas.”

Saul Barrera Ayala, President of the Sports Institute of Peru (IPD), said: "The signing of this document is important because it sets the guidelines for the Parapan American Games 2019. For the IPD it is an important milestone because the growth of Paralympic sport in our country will be consolidated in all disciplines. We will make a successful Games with more athletes compared to Toronto and more sports. It is our commitment to make Lima a historic Games.”

The Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games took place between 7-15 August 2015. The Games featured 1,600 athletes from 28 countries who competed in 15 sports. During eight days of competition, 10 world, 70 Americas and 239 Games records were broken.