The opening ceremony of the Paris Paralympic Games has been held in the centre of the French capital, kicking off 11 days of intense competition.
Like the Olympic opening ceremony on the Seine in July, this one took place outside the main stadium for the first time during a Paralympic Games.
In mild weather, in contrast to the heavy rain that marred the opening of the Olympic Games on July 26, the games opened on Wednesday evening at the Place de la Concorde in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron.
When the sporting action gets underway on Thursday, a new generation of Paralympic athletes will join seasoned veterans competing in many of the same venues that hosted Olympic sports.
A total of 18 of the 35 Olympic venues will be used for the Paralympics, which run until September 8, including the Grand Palais, which received rave reviews for hosting the fencing and taekwondo events under an ornate roof.
The Arena La Défense will once again host the swimming events, while athletics will take place on the purple track at the Stade de France.
Ticket sales, which had been slow since the Olympics, have picked up, with more than 2 million of the 2.5 million available tickets sold, and several venues are sold out.
Organisers said wheelchair users can take Paris buses and they have also made 1,000 specially adapted taxis available.
The Paralympics always have a broader message than just sport, and International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons said he hoped the Paris edition would return issues facing people with disabilities to the top of the global priority list.
Parsons believes the games “will have a huge impact on how disabled people are perceived around the world.”
“This is one of the key expectations we have for Paris 2024; we believe that we need to put people with disabilities back on the global agenda,” said the Brazilian.
“We believe that people with disabilities have been left behind. There is very little debate about people with disabilities.”
