PARIS (AP) — Just weeks after hosting the Olympic Games, Paris’ summer of sports begins its final chapter Wednesday with the opening ceremony of the Paralympics.
More than 4,000 athletes with physical, visual and intellectual disabilities will compete in 22 sports over the next 11 days.
Organisers have promised a spectacular show to open the Games. Once again, the show will take place outside the stadium, but unlike the Olympic opening ceremony, which featured a parade of boats on the River Seine, the Paralympic ceremony will take place exclusively on the grounds, with athletes parading down the famous Champs-Élysées to a reception at the Place de la Concorde.
Artistic director Thomas Joly, who also led the Olympic opening ceremony, said the event would “showcase Paralympic athletes and the values they embody”, promising “a performance like never before”.
Organisers say more than two million tickets have been sold for the Paris Paralympics. Competition begins on Thursday with the first medals in taekwondo, table tennis and cycling. Athletes are grouped by disability level to ensure as equal a chance as possible. Only two sports on the programme, goalball and boccia, have no Olympic equivalent.
The huge crowds expected in Paris will mean a lot to the athletes, many of whom competed in front of empty stands at the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago due to the Covid-19 pandemic, said International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons.
“Because our ambition is to be seen and understood as the most transformative sporting event on the planet, it is important that we have that atmosphere,” he told The Associated Press on the eve of the opening ceremony.
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