France’s President Emmanuel Macron (heart proper) and his spouse Brigitte Macron (heart left) pose for a household image on the Elysee presidential palace in Paris on August 28, 2024, throughout a reception of heads of state, authorities and worldwide organizations as a part of the opening of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Video games.| Photograph by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / POOL / AFP
PARIS, France — The Paris Paralympics start on Wednesday with a spectacular opening ceremony within the centre of the French capital, firing the beginning gun on 11 days of intense competitors.
Simply as for the opening ceremony of the Olympics on the River Seine in July, the ceremony will happen away from the primary stadium for the primary time at a Paralympics.
READ MORE:
Paralympics 2024 Video games to open with ‘by no means seen earlier than’ ceremony
From Paris to LA: How Los Angeles is getting ready for 2028 Olympics
Paris closes out 2024 Olympics with last star-studded present
It’s in Place de la Concorde, the historic sq. the place skateboarding and different ‘city’ sports activities came about through the Olympics, that the Video games will open.
When the sporting motion begins on Thursday, a brand new era of Paralympians will be part of seasoned veterans competing in most of the similar venues that hosted Olympic sports activities.
A complete of 18 of the 35 Olympic venues will probably be used for the Paralympics, which run till September 8, together with the Grand Palais which scored rave evaluations for its internet hosting of the fencing and taekwondo underneath an ornate roof.
The La Protection Enviornment will once more host the swimming occasions and observe and subject will happen on the purple observe of the Stade de France.
Sluggish ticket gross sales have picked up because the Olympics and greater than two million of the two.5 million obtainable have been offered, with a number of venues offered out.
The Paralympic flame was lit at Stoke Mandeville hospital in England, the birthplace of the Video games, and dropped at France by way of the Channel Tunnel earlier than touring French cities.
Theatre director Thomas Jolly, who additionally oversaw the Olympics opening ceremony, mentioned there was a deep symbolism in having the Paralympics ceremony within the centre of the French capital — a metropolis whose Metro system, particularly, is totally unadapted to the wants of wheelchair customers.
“Placing Paralympic athletes within the coronary heart of the town is already a political marker within the sense that the town isn’t sufficiently tailored to each handicapped particular person,” Jolly mentioned earlier this week.
Organisers say wheelchair customers can take Paris buses and so they have laid on 1,000 specifically tailored taxis as effectively.
READ MORE:
What sports activities are within the Paralympics?
Paris Paralympics 2024 schedule: Staff Philippines
Robust Chinese language squad
Paralympic powerhouse China will ship a powerful squad — the Chinese language dominated the medals desk on the Covid-delayed Video games in Tokyo three years in the past profitable 96 golds. Britain had been second with 41 golds.
Using the wave of its Olympic crew’s success, host nation France will probably be aiming for a considerable improve on the 11 golds it gained in 2021, which left it in 14th place.
French Sports activities Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera mentioned she desires France to complete within the high eight of the medals desk.
Ukraine, historically one of many high medal-winning nations on the Paralympics, have despatched a crew of 140 athletes unfold over 17 sports activities regardless of the challenges they face in getting ready because the battle in opposition to Russian forces rages at residence.
Russia and Belarus are sending a complete of 96 athletes who will compete underneath a impartial banner however are barred from the opening and shutting ceremonies due to the invasion of Ukraine.
New stars, seasoned veterans
Each Video games produces new stars, and on this version look to American above-the-knee amputee sprinter/excessive jumper Ezra Frech to make the headlines.
Away from the observe, Iranian sitting volleyball legend Morteza Mehrzad, who stands 8ft 1in (2.46m) tall, will try and take gold once more.
The Paralympics all the time have a far wider message than merely sport and Worldwide Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons instructed AFP earlier this yr he hopes the Paris version will restore the problems going through disabled folks to the highest of the checklist of world priorities.
Parsons believes the Video games “could have a big effect in how folks with incapacity are perceived around the globe”.
“This is without doubt one of the key expectations we now have round Paris 2024; we consider that we want folks with incapacity to be put again on the worldwide agenda,” the Brazilian mentioned.
He argued that incapacity had fallen behind sexual and gender identification in recent times.
“We do consider folks with incapacity have been left behind. There may be little or no debate about individuals with incapacity.”
Learn Subsequent
Disclaimer: The feedback uploaded on this web site don’t essentially characterize or mirror the views of administration and proprietor of Cebudailynews. We reserve the proper to exclude feedback that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial requirements.
