Not like the Olympics, the Paralympic ceremony is occurring completely on land, with athletes parading down the well-known Champs-Elysées.
PARIS, France — Simply weeks after internet hosting the Olympics, Paris started the ultimate chapter of its summer time of sports activities Wednesday with the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Video games.
French President Emmanuel Macron formally declared the Video games open in a ceremony held exterior the confines of a stadium, identical to when the Olympics opened within the metropolis on July 26.
Towards the backdrop of a setting solar, hundreds of athletes paraded down the famed Champs-Elysées avenue to Place de la Concorde in central Paris.
About 50,000 folks watched the ceremony in stands constructed across the iconic sq., which is the largest in Paris and is seen from afar due to its historic Egyptian Obelisk. Accessibility for athletes in wheelchairs was facilitated with strips of asphalt laid alongside the avenue and positioned over the sq..
Greater than 4,000 athletes with bodily, visible and mental impairments will compete in 22 sports from Thursday till Sept. 8.
Below the gaze of Macron, Worldwide Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons, fighter planes flew overhead, leaving red-white-and blue vapors within the colours of the French nationwide flag, earlier than the delegations entered the sq. in alphabetical order.
Some delegations have been big — greater than 250 athletes from Brazil — and a few have been tiny — lower than a handful from Barbados and simply three from Myanmar.
Though Wednesday night time’s present began at 8 p.m. native time, followers had gathered hours earlier underneath a scorching solar to get high spots alongside the way in which. As performers entertained the gang on stage, volunteers danced alongside Paralympians as they waved their nationwide flags and the sky gave off a postcard-perfect orange glow.
Ukraine’s delegation acquired a loud cheer and a number of the crowd stood to applaud them.
The French delegation arrived final and to roars from the gang, which then sang alongside to common French songs, together with “Que Je T’aime” by late rocker Johnny Hallyday.
Fortunate Love, a French singer who misplaced his left arm at start, was joined by performers in wheelchairs when he sang on stage. Then, because the nationwide anthem performed, the Obelisk lit up within the colours of the French flag.
Organizers had promised one other spectacular present to open the Video games. As soon as once more it was held exterior of a stadium, however not like the rain-soaked Olympic opening ceremony on July 26, which featured a ship parade on the Seine River, the Paralympic ceremony was completely on land.
Organizers say greater than 2 million of the 2.8 million tickets have been offered for the assorted Paralympic occasions.
Tony Estanguet, the president of the Olympic and Paralympic Video games, known as Paralympians “immense champions who we now have the dignity of being with tonight.”
The first medals handed out on Thursday will likely be in taekwondo, desk tennis, swimming and monitor biking. Athletes are grouped by impairment ranges to make sure as degree a enjoying subject as potential. Solely two sports activities, goalball and boccia, haven’t got an Olympic equal.
Parsons mentioned that the large crowds anticipated in Paris will imply so much to the athletes, lots of whom competed in entrance of empty stands on the Tokyo Paralympics three years in the past as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
Parsons hoped the Paralympics would serve “as a strong pressure for good” amid ongoing international tensions.
The closing ceremony will likely be held at Stade de France, the nationwide stadium.
