Join the #Paralympics conversation on Twitter

The 2016 Paralympic Games (@Rio2016_en) begin today in Rio de Janeiro. To make the conversation around the Games even more exciting, we’ve launched a series of official Twitter emojis.

From gold medals to specific sports, simply including any of these hashtags will automatically unlock that special emoji in your Tweet.

Hashtags are available in seven languages: Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean and Arabic.

Official accounts

To stay involved in the conversation on Twitter throughout the Games, make sure you’re following these official accounts:

@Rio2016_en
@Rio2016
@Paralympics
@ViniciusRio2016
@cpboficial
@USParalympics

You can stay close to every step of Team USA’s Paralympic journey, by following all of our athletes

Torch Relay

The torch will arrive at the Maracana stadium tonight for the opening ceremony. Up until then, you can still help virtually light the #ParalympicFlame through Twitter.

Throughout its Brazilian tour of the five regions of the country, leading up to Rio, fans have been lighting the flame by simply Tweeting with these hashtags - #ChamaParalímpica and #Igualdade. The torches are lit by energy generated by Tweets, and there is a heat map that is powered by the volume of Tweets in each region. The map is available on the official website of the Games.

Twitter Moments

The best way to make sure you don’t miss a moment of the Games is to keep an eye on Twitter Moments. Each day the very best Paralympic highlights (Tweets, photos, videos, GIFs and much more) will be at your fingertips.

Simply visit https://twitter.com/i/moments or click on the lighting bolt tab on your mobile device.