Just a few weeks after hosting the Olympics, Paris began the final chapter of its summer sports season on Wednesday with the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games. With the sunset as the backdrop for the nearly four-hour inauguration, thousands of athletes paraded down the famous Champs-Élysées avenue to reach the Place de la Concorde in the center of the “City of Light.”
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There, French President Emmanuel Macron officially declared the Paralympic Games open in a ceremony staged outside the confines of a stadium, just like the Olympic Games.
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How was the Opening Ceremony?
Approximately 50,000 people watched the ceremony from the stands set up around the iconic square, the largest in Paris and visible from afar due to its ancient Egyptian obelisk. Access for wheelchair athletes was facilitated with asphalt ramps along the avenue.
More than 4,000 athletes with physical, visual, and intellectual disabilities will compete in 22 sports over the next 11 days, until September 8th.
The organizers said that more than 2 million tickets, out of the 2.8 million available, have been sold for the various Paralympic events.
In front of Macron and the President of the International Paralympic Committee, Andrew Parsons, fighter jets flew over the city for the Opening Ceremony, leaving trails with the red, blue, and white colors of the French flag. Following that, the delegations entered the square in alphabetical order.
The flag bearers Steve Serio and Nicky Nieves led the US delegation. The French marched last, acclaimed by the crowd, which then sang popular French songs like "Que Je T’aime" by the late rocker Johnny Hallyday.
During the show, directed by Thomas Jolly—who also conceived the Olympic Opening Ceremony—singers, dancers, and musicians with and without disabilities appeared together on stage, projecting a message of inclusion and overcoming physical differences.
Lucky Love, a French singer who lost his left arm at birth, performed a song accompanied by dancers in wheelchairs. Other acts included dances with crutches.
"The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will showcase what people with disabilities can achieve at the highest level. When barriers are removed for success. It is proof that we can and must do more to advance the inclusion of people with disabilities, whether on the field, in the classroom, in concert halls, or in the boardroom," said Andrew Parsons.
How was the lighting of the cauldron?
In the conclusion of the Ceremony, the Olympic torch arrived at the area, carried by Michaël Jérémiasz, a gold medalist in wheelchair tennis. Other torchbearers surrounded him on the stage.
Five French Paralympic athletes lit the cauldron, designed to look like a hot air balloon and emit a golden glow at night.