(Paris) A show in the heart of the capital followed by 11 days of competition to, once again, convince: Paris launches its first Paralympic Games on Wednesday evening, starting with a new ceremony outside the stadium, organized in front of a superb panorama.
“We are just a few hours away from a historic page for the French and international Paralympic movement,” proclaimed Marie-Amélie Le Fur, president of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee (CPSF), during an inaugural press conference in Paris.
Starting at 8 p.m., a majority of the 4,400 athletes – including around 150 from the French delegation – representing 168 delegations, will parade between the Champs-Élysées and the Place de la Concorde, for a three-hour show entitled Paradox.
The first spectators arrived late in the afternoon to attend the ceremony, AFP journalists noted on site. Around 15,000, out of a total of 50,000, are expected for the popular parade which will take place in a free zone at the bottom of the Champs-Élysées.
When the free ticket zone opened, a queue of several hundred people was milling around Avenue de Matignon.
“It’s a unique moment, either you watch it on TV, but it’s better in real life,” explain Adrien and his sister Diane, before the security checks where they were given a green bracelet.
Before the festivities began, martial arts film star Jackie Chan was among the last torchbearers, which will end its journey at the cauldron of the Hôtel de Ville. The latter will be lit by twelve torchbearers, including Cyréna Samba-Mayela, the only French woman to have won a medal in athletics at the Olympics, and Ryadh Sallem, a star player on the wheelchair rugby team.
The organizers promised “the same ambition” as the July 26 Olympic ceremony, which was acclaimed worldwide.
This time, no parade on the Seine, but one of the most famous avenues in the world, before a show around the obelisk of the Concorde, particularly focused on “all bodies”, according to Thomas Jolly, its artistic director.
“An incredible ceremony” for the president of the international committee Andrew Parsons, “the first encounter of the French with the Paralympic Games”, according to Marie-Amélie Le Fur, while these Games did not yet exist when Paris hosted the Olympic Games at the beginning of the 20th centurye century.
Mme Le Fur said he hoped for a show “that will put the athletes at the heart”, but also a ceremony “that is militant and demonstrates that we still have developments to see for the place of people with disabilities”.
Choreographed by the Swede Alexander Ekman, known for his grandiose scenographies, it will feature 150 dancers, including around twenty with disabilities, for a show carrying messages about inclusion. The names of the artists present remain secret.
In addition to the Champs-Élysées and the Concorde, the Tuileries Garden will also be part of the decor with the lighting of the cauldron, which will be illuminated again after the Olympics. Who will light it? Here too, the mystery remains.
“A challenge”
Although the numerous rules for classifying the events and the names of the athletes remain unknown to the general public, these Paralympic Games have generated significant interest: of the 2.5 million tickets put on sale in October, 2 million have found buyers, a dynamic reinforced by the Olympic effect.
Nearly 200,000 of them will be allocated to schoolchildren, during a period marked by the start of the school year on September 2. The political start of the school year could come and cast a shadow.
“The media context is totally different from what we experienced at the Olympic Games,” concedes Marie-Amélie Le Fur. “I hope that the good results of the French team will arrive early to occupy the space,” she continues.
Coverage of the event will be significant, with 165 television channels following the event, a record.
“We have taken a step forward since Rio (in 2016), since Tokyo (in 2021),” said Diede de Groot, the most successful Dutch wheelchair tennis player in Grand Slam history. “We have to see this as a challenge to improve further.”
The first podiums will take place on Thursday, in para-swimming, taekwondo, cycling and table tennis. All in most of the major venues which, there too, had contributed to the success of the Olympic Games.