The Paralympic logo is seen at the Arena Paris Sud venue ahead of the Paris Paralympics, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurélien Morisard)
The Paralympics open in Paris on Wednesday, showcasing the talents of remarkable athletes in a city still riding the wave of a highly successful Olympics.
A new generation of Paralympians will be joined by seasoned veterans who will compete in the same sensational venues in the heart of the French capital where the Olympic Games were held.
Eighteen of the 35 Olympic venues will be used for the Paralympic Games from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8, including the Grand Palace, which received high praise for hosting the fencing and taekwondo events.
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La Defense Arena is also back, where the 141 gold medal events in para-swimming will be held, and the Stade de France will also host track and field events.
The opening ceremony will take place at Place de la Concorde, where skateboarding and other ‘urban’ sports were held during the Olympics. Like the Olympic ceremony on the River Seine, this is the first time the Paralympics have taken place away from the main stadium.
Ticket sales were slow, with reportedly less than half the tickets sold by the time the Olympics were in full swing, but they have increased significantly since then and organisers say many venues have sold out.
Every Olympics brings forth new stars, and this edition is no exception, so take a look at American above-knee amputee sprinter/high jumper Ezra Frech, who at just 19 years old has already garnered plenty of publicity for his journey to Paris.
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More familiar names also return – British disabled sprinter Jonnie Peacock was one of the most high-profile athletes at London 2012 and returned to running last year in his attempt to win a medal at a fourth consecutive Paralympics.
Strong Chinese team
Pedestrians walk on a bridge in front of the China Team Building at the Athletes’ Village for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on July 18, 2024. (Photo: Geoffroy van der Hasselt/AFP)
However the Paralympic Games have always had a message far broader than sport and International Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons told AFP earlier this year that he hoped the Paris edition would push the issues facing people with disabilities to the top of the list of global priorities.
Parsons believes these Games will have “a major impact on people’s perception of people with disabilities around the world.”
“This is one of our key expectations for Paris 2024; we believe we need to put people with disabilities back on the global agenda,” the Brazilian said.
She argued that disability had lagged behind sexual and gender identity in recent years.
“We believe people with disabilities have been left behind. There is very little debate about persons with disabilities.”
Paralympic superpower China will send a strong team – three years ago in Tokyo the Chinese team dominated the medal table with 96 gold medals. Britain was second with 41 gold medals.
Riding on the wave of success of their Olympic team, host nation France will aim to substantially improve on the 11 gold medals they won at 2021.
Ukraine, traditionally one of the top medal-winning nations at the Paralympic Games, will still send a squad of 140 athletes spanning 17 sports, despite facing challenges in preparation due to the war against Russian forces.
Athletes from Russia and Belarus will compete under neutral banners, without team colours, but will not be allowed to attend the opening or closing ceremonies.
The Russian and Belarusian federations were suspended following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but their rivals are allowed to compete as neutrals provided they have not shown any support for the war.
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