A Spectacular Opening Ceremony at Paris Paralympics 2024: Like the Olympics opener, the Paralympics opener was held not in a stadium, as it is a tradition, but in the French capital.
The primary dinner dance was held at Place de la Concorde on one magnificent evening in midsummer with articulated lighting on a backdrop of Paris city and was followed by a parade down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees from the legendary Arc de Triomphe.
It was anticipated that 65,000 people would attend the parade, followed by the open-air event for which tickets had been sold.
Thursday marks the first of 11 days of sporting action as France stages a summer Paralympics for the first time.
Approximately 4,400 athletes from 168 delegations will take part in 22 Paralympic sports for the achievements of a total 549 gold medals in Paris.
Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 organizing committee, said the opening ceremony signified the beginning of “the Paralympic revolution” to be driven by the athletes.
“What defines you as revolutionaries is that even when they said ‘no’, you went on,” Estanguet added.
Tonight, you are asking us to shift our focus, shift our perception, and shift the world to incorporate all people to afford every being its due space.
“Every emotion that you make us feel will carry a message that will never be forgotten: Never before have you been limited. So we ceased putting a limit on you.
Paralympic ‘revolution’ begins in style
Critic Thomas Jolly had said that it would be “a spectacle that will express what Paralympic athletes are and what they stand for.”.
It was independently planned to be acted out at the Place de la Concorde—the largest square in Paris—to signify that the issue of inclusion of people with disabilities is at the center of society.
Whereas during the Olympic Games athletes were moving in the boats in the middle of hard raining down the River Seine, during that of the Paralympics movements were on during the parade on route Champs Elysees under the glory of the sun.
The keynote speaker of the first part of the show was French former Paralympic swimmer Theo Curin, who took athletes in a taxi transformed by Phryges—the mascot of Paris 2024 modified for the Paralympic Games with a running blade.
A sequence of performances by artists with disabilities and impairments focused on social problems of integration and the presence of prejudice in a world that claims to be integrated from prejudice was a central idea.
During the ceremony, blue, white and red Tricolore smoke were released by the Patrouille de France aerial display. Before the athletes, Christine and the Queens perform on the main stage at the Place de la Concorde.
One of the live audiences was British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who welcomed the ParalympicsGB delegation into a party mood where the athletes entered against the backdrop of a setting sun with the Arc de Triomphe in the background.
It was a great honor for wheelchair tennis athlete Lucy Shuker and wheelchair basketball player Terry Bywater, who represented ParalympicsGB for the fifth and seventh time, respectively, as they were elected as flagbearers by their peers.
Sprinter Nantenin Keita and paratriathlete Alexis Hanquinquant represented host nation France for flag duties, the last delegation to enter the Place de la Concorde as spectators cheered them on while singing along to Les Champs-Elysees.
After Estanguet and IPC president Andrew Parsons’ speeches, the French president Emmanuel Macron took the floor to open the Games.
Parsons said: The approaching Paralympics 2024 in Paris will demonstrate to the persons with disabilities what measures they are capable of at the top level.
That these opportunities are as such only available in the positive sense in the year 2024 in sport, one must say, is surprising. This is the right example that more should be done for the progress of disability.
‘That is why, 225 years on from when Place de la Concorde was central to the French Revolution, I hope that Paris 2024 starts a Paralympic revolution—the inclusion revolution.’
During this flame, carrying twelve Paralympic champions took the Paralympic flame to the Jardin des Tuileries.
There the cauldron was lit by flagbearers Keita and Hanquinquant , Charles Antoine Kouakou, Fabien Lamirault and Elodie Lorandi before it was lifted high above as the ceremony ended in style with an impressive fireworks display.
What to expect at the Paralympics and how to follow
IPC president Parsons said in the run-up to the Games that he is confident that the Paralympic Games will provide ‘the most spectacular Paralympic Games ever’.
This means that there are still half a million tickets out there that the organizers’ hope buyers will come looking for.
As many of the Olympic facilities are used again for Paralympics, the Paralympics athletics are at Stade de France, while the swimmers perform at La Defense Arena, wheelchair tennis at Roland Garros, and para-equestrian at Chateau de Versailles.
Currently the para-triathlon will be held in the center of Paris with the swim leg conducted in the River Seine after the men’s Olympic triathlon event was conducted after a day’s delay due to cancellation of the training session because of poor quality of water in the river.
Like in the Olympics, Russia and friendly nation Belarus are prohibited due to the on-going war in Ukraine but individual athletes from both nations are permitted to compete under the banner of Neutral Paralympic Athletes (NPA).
Eritrea, Kiribati and Kosovo will be participating in the Paralympics for the first time and eight athletes will be participating for the Paralympic Refugee Team.
This year’s ParalympicsGB team will comprise of 215 athletes, with the ambition of winning 100-140 medals, according to UK Sport.
Channel 4 in England will broadcast the Games, while BBC Radio 5 Live will provide commentary as well as updates and special programs, and BBC Sport Online will provide daily live text.
There are 22 golds available to be won on the first day, and there will certainly be chances for ParalympicsGB to start their medal winning on the first day.
