The historic Place de la Concorde will host the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games on August 28, the first time the event will be held outside a stadium.
Once 2024 Summer Olympics concluded, Paris focuses on the next big sporting event of the summer: the Paralympic Gameswhich will be held from August 28 to September 8.
The city prepares to welcome about 4,400 Paralympic athletes who will compete in 23 different disciplines. Organizers are taking advantage of the post-Olympic lull to prepare venues for events ranging from wheelchair rugby to para-athletics.
The Place de la Concordewhich during the Olympic Games hosted skateboarding, breaking and 3×3 basketball events, has been a hive of construction activity since the closing of the Games on August 11. The historic square will host on Wednesday the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Gameswhich for the first time will be held outside a stadium.
The president of Paris 2024, Tony Estanguet, intends keep the enthusiasm generated by the Olympic Games, while shedding light on discrimination against the disabled.
“We want to see how, at our level and with humility, we can contribute to changing this view of disability“, he declared from the British town of Stoke Mandeville, from where the Paralympic flame began its journey to Paris.
The most of the Olympic venues will continue to be used for the Paralympic Games. The Palace of Versailles will host para-equestrian events, the Grand Palais will host wheelchair fencing, and the venue under the Eiffel Tower, which used to host beach volleyball, will now host blind football, an adaptation of football for visually impaired players.
Even though the streets are quieter, security remains tight. The French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced the deployment of some 25,000 police officers during the Paralympic Games to ensure heightened security measures remain in place.
The organizers promise a unprecedented spectacle for the opening ceremonyin which they will meet thousands of athletes and tens of thousands of spectators. “These Paralympic Games must be at the service of a collective reflectionin the hope that people will have a more benign view of the disabilitywhich is still the first cause of discrimination in France. We want to see how, at our level and with humility, we can contribute to changing this vision of disability,” declared Tony Estanguet.
The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will be held until September 8.
