IPC chief hopes sport can be ‘social glue’ amid global challenges as Paris 2024 begins

French President Emmanuel Macron declared the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games open on the evening of Aug 28 at Place de la Concorde.

This is the first time that France has hosted the Paralympic Summer Games, and is also the first time that a Paralympics opening ceremony has taken place outside a stadium, in the heart of the host city.

The athletes paraded from the bottom of the Champs-Elysees and made their way around the stage area, greeted by the Phryges, mascots of the Games.

The opening ceremony on the theme of “Paradox” told the story of two groups moving from discord to concord.

“The aim of this ceremony is to change the way we look at people with disabilities, and to oppose all preconceived opinions on these issues, but not in a vain and sterile opposition,” said Thomas Jolly, artistic director of the Paris 2024 ceremonies.

Around 4,400 athletes from a record 168 delegations will participate in the 11-day competition across 22 sports starting from Aug 30, with Eritrea, Kiribati, and Kosovo making their Paralympic debuts.

China’s delegation entered with wheelchair fencer Gu Haiyan and weight-lifter Qi Yongkai carrying the flag together.

At the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, Gu secured two gold medals in the individual foil (category-A) and women’s team foil events.

“To be a flagbearer is not just my honor but also our wheelchair fencing team’s honor. I will carry this pride and strive at the Paralympics to win glory for my country,” Gu said.

Qi clinched the men’s 59kg gold at the last Games. “Tokyo 2020 was my first Games, and I lacked self-assurance at that time. But now, I believe in myself more than ever,” Qi said.

China has sent a delegation of 284 athletes — 126 men and 158 women — to compete across 302 events in 19 sports. Among them, 95 are first-time Paralympians.

Among them, 48-year-old table tennis player Xiong Guiyan is the eldest athlete in China’s delegation, while swimmer Zhu Hui, 15, is the youngest.

Since the Rio Games in 2016, a team of refugees has taken part in both Olympic and Paralympic Games.

This time in Paris, eight athletes and one guide runner will compete as part of the largest-ever Refugee Paralympic Team. They are based in six countries and will compete across six sports.

France’s delegation concluded the parade of athletes along the Champs-Elysees to Place de la Concorde.

The live show started at the foot of the obelisk in Place de la Concorde with Canadian musician, songwriter, and producer Chilly Gonzales on the piano. Artists with disabilities and impairments screamed a countdown and French singer Christine and the Queens delivered a pop rendition of Edith Piaf’s Je ne regrette rien.

The event, directed by Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman and featuring 500 artists, was named “Paradox, from discord to concord”, in a thinly-veiled reference to the Place de la Concorde, where the sold-out ceremony ended in front of more than 50,000 spectators.

Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 organizing committee, gave a speech to welcome the athletes.

“Even if all your life stories are unique, you have often lived with people listing all the things you are unable to do. Until the day you first entered a sports club.

“On that day, you understood that sport would not impose any limits. On that day, you understood that sport would never put you in a box. Like all athletes, you trained, you sweated, you failed and you got back up again. And you became the great champions that we are honored to have with us tonight.”

International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons followed with a speech of his own.

“At a time of growing global conflict, increasing hate, and rising exclusion, let sport be the social glue that brings us together,” he said.

“Every person with a disability deserves the opportunity to thrive and live life free from barriers, free from discrimination, and free from marginalization,” he added.

After the final relays in the Tuileries Garden, five torchbearers lit the Paris 2024 cauldron together. The cauldron rose into the sky, heralding the return of the Games.

France has decided to make it a nationwide project to make 3,000 clubs accessible to people with disabilities, Parsons told a press conference on Aug 27.

As a legacy of the Paris 2024 Paralympics, the measure aims to support people with disabilities who want to go back to school and have better inclusion, while they will have coaches and physical education teachers in the clubs who know how to welcome them, Parsons noted.