“La Ritournelle” by Sébastien Tellier, “Boléro” by Ravel… Relive the incredible scene of the lighting of the cauldron

The highlight of the show, after three hours of opening ceremony of the Paris Paralympic Games. The flame made its appearance on the Place de la Concorde, Wednesday, August 28. It was Florent Manaudou who had the honor of presenting the torch to the public, accompanied by The Ritournellethe iconic title of French singer and composer Sébastien Tellier.

The flame was then passed to Michael Jeremiaszthen to Italian fencer Beatrice Vio, Paralympic superstar. She gave it to American paracyclist Oksana Masters, who passed it on to German long jumper Markus Rehm.

SOn stage at the same time, more than 150 dancers and performers were also equipped with torches. In a fiery ballet punctuated by the Bolero by Maurice Ravel, the dancers formed the three Agitos, symbols of the Paralympic Games. Among them were the Belgian Sofie Cox, one of the greatest para-dance champions, and her compatriot Florent Devlesaver, dancer contemporary also in a wheelchair.

Finally, in the same scenography as during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, in the Tuileries Gardens, theFrench para-athletics star Assia El Hannouni trotted towards the Olympic cauldron. Para-swimmer Beatrice Hess came a little closer to the ball. Then the two flag bearers of the French delegation, theParatriathlete Alexis Hanquinquant and para-athlete Nantenin Keïta, have gone into action. They have joined Charles-Antoine Kouakou, Elodie Lorandi and Fabien Lamirault, all five of them lighting the cauldron.