Regardless of any limitations your body may present, if your heart truly wants it, you'll get there.

On September 7, 2016, at eight o'clock in the evening, the countdown began: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. At that exact moment, American athlete Aaron Wheelz "dropped" a 30-meter mega skate ramp, built under the supervision of Bob Burnquist, and jumped through a stage zero, performing a perfect somersault, landing on the other side to the delight and surprise of the 60,000 people who filled the Maracanã stadium that historic night.

The first message was clear: don't feel sorry for these guys! They are incredible athletes who fight for every tenth of a second in a competition, who will do almost the impossible for the opportunity to stand on a podium representing their countries of origin.

This is how the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games began. The result of the work of a super team of over 500 people, including some of the best professionals in the world, who spared no effort to make it unforgettable.

The responsibility was even greater because of the success of the Olympic opening ceremony that captivated the world just over a month earlier. The mission of conceiving it in its entirety was given to us. To me, to Vik (Muniz), and to Marcelo (Rubens Paiva).

All with the courageous and light production of our dear and missed Flávio Machado. It was two and a half years of intense work, a lot of research, and many, many lessons learned!

Hearing, for example, from Marcelo himself, that this story of overcoming was nonsense, because he and many other people with disabilities didn't feel like they were overcoming anything. They continued their lives with the challenges and pleasures that we all have. Seeing Marcelo playing with his children, who hitched rides in his electric wheelchair on winding roads, only confirmed this perspective.

Many of our certainties and beliefs were being dismantled with each encounter with athletes and former athletes who showed us how easy it was to be wrong, even with the best intentions.

Hearing from a top athlete that at that moment, after the accident that took both his legs, he was much happier because he had finally found a purpose for his life, helped us to see what that ceremony should really celebrate.

Regardless of the configuration of your body, your limitations in mobility and senses, what really matters is the heart. Because it knows no limits! It is what makes us equal in our truly human condition.

I arrived there having previous experience creating Olympic brands (a story in itself), but also Paralympic brands, where the entire Tátil team was already deeply immersed in the universe of values, challenges, and the super inspiring character of this group, with the aim of representing them through a strong and relevant identity.

And it was in this challenge—which, unlike the Olympic identity, in which bodies are represented holding hands in a great embrace evoking unity and celebration—that we understood that this one wouldn't be about bodies.

The Paralympic brand should translate the infinite energy these athletes have to rise from the depths of despair, when they eventually lose a part of their bodies, to the top of the podium.

That was the journey we wanted to represent. The archetypes of the heart and the infinity symbol were our inspiration to translate the power of this motivation. And more than that.

The Paralympic logo, just like the Olympic logo which was already three-dimensional, now also needed to be multisensory, so that everyone, regardless of their body characteristics, could interact with the identity that represented them.

It pulsed with light and vibration, reacting to people approaching. When touched, it resonated, with a sound that mixed the beating of a heart with the sounds of a crowd. Difficult to explain, but you can see it in the video below. And it worked in a unique way.

One of the most emotional moments was when Ádria Santos, one of our greatest Paralympic medalists, on the day of the launch, with dozens of photographers and journalists in front of her, approached the logo without anything having been planned and began to interact with it, feeling the sound, the pulse of a heart.

She couldn't contain her emotion and began to cry, saying that it was the first time in her 20-year career as a blind Paralympic athlete that she could finally interact with the logo that represented her.

Of course, no one could hold back the tears, from Andrew Parsons, president of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee at the time, to the assistant holding the microphone during the interview.

And this was the universe of creative possibilities that opened up to us in the conception of the ceremony on September 7, 2016. How to translate that infinite energy, the resilience of those athletes, the space that challenged our common sense and inspired us to find the poetic and the plastic and symbolic force of what we would see during the games that would begin the next day?

In addition to the classic parade of athletes culminating in the assembly of a large jigsaw puzzle with photos of all of them in the middle of the Maracanã, we also had 13 segments that, little by little, told the story we had imagined.

From Amy Purdy, the American double-amputee snowboarder—who, after intensive samba lessons with Alice Gelli, my daughter and creative assistant throughout the project, dances with a large robot, demonstrating the relationship between technology and humanity—to the choreography of two blind dancers whose movements were parameterized by giant tactile images.

From the choreography of large sails that stubbornly sail against the wind with the mission of forming the "agitos" (a type of samba rhythm) to the moment when the Maracanã stadium becomes a giant heart, pulsating with light and the sound of applause and foot-stomping from thousands of people.

But it was in the unexpected that the magic truly happened. Near the moment of lighting the Paralympic cauldron at the Maracanã, athlete Márcia Malsar was running with difficulty due to the aftereffects of her cerebral palsy.

The rain began to fall, and she, holding the lit torch, lost her balance and fell. A profound silence. Two people from the production crew approached to help her. One took the torch, which was still lit.

We, in the control booth, looked at each other anxiously, because everything could have ended there if she had been hurt. But then, she gave a thumbs-up to the young people who were helping her, took the torch again, and finally started running again. At that moment, the Maracanã stadium erupted in applause, shouts, and whistles celebrating her courage.

Well, I don't need to say that this was the most emotional moment of my entire professional career. Tears streamed down my face, and at that moment I looked at Vik, Marcelo, and Paula Melo, our super creative leader, fundamental throughout the entire process, and we all, in tears, realized that after all this time working on the project, after all the investment in sets, costumes, and equipment, there, in that unique and unthinkable moment, in what could have been the accident that would have ruined everything, our concept materialized in the clearest and most powerful way.

In front of an incredulous Maracanã stadium, Márcia Malsar demonstrated the strength of her heart to carry, even with her frail body, the Paralympic flame to the cauldron.

The heart truly knows no limits. Regardless of any limitations your body may present, if your heart truly wants it, you'll get there! May the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games come, once again showing us that only the strength of the heart can truly change the world!