The Paralympic flame has made its way from England to France for the opening ceremony and the city of Lights is busy preparing for what Tony Estanguet, the president of Paris 2024, calls “the rematch.”
The Paralympic flame was lit in Stoke Mandeville on Saturday, northwest of London, the birthplace of the Paralympics in 1948. For its first inauguration, the competition included 16 athletes competing in archery at Stoke Mandeville Hospital and Richmond Hospital in London. All were veterans of the British army, and just two were women. By 1969, Queen Elizabeth II was in attendance; by 2008, there were 3.5 million spectators.
Now in 2024, the Paralympics involve 12 days, 180 delegations, 22 sports, and 18 venues—many of those that were used for the Olympic Games. After the phenomenal success of the Paris Olympic Games, the Olympic village fell back into life Wednesday, 22 August, as the first of over 4,000 expected Paralympic athletes arrived for their stay.
The Olympics Village Was Built For The Paralympians
There is a good reason for the two-week gap between the Olympics and Paralympics—notably the time needed to prepare the Olympic Village for the Paralympians and the eventing sites.
As Le Monde notes, the Olympic Village has wide doors, accessible balconies and showers, electrical plug sockets just 45 centimeters from the floor, furniture with wheels, garbage cans without lids, slopes, adapted signage, and lighting everywhere.
Preparing the eventing sites is more challenging. When Le Grand Palais was built in 1900, its architects could never have imagined that it would one-day host wheelchair fencing, and preparing a six-level building for wheelchairs is not easy. There is fresh paint everywhere, with new signage for new events.
At the Eiffel Tower, the 400 tons of sand laid down for the Olympic Games beach volleyball could never be moved in time, so a wooden structure was built over the top, and synthetic turf was laid above for the blind football.
Le Monde reports that this has been an advantage—blind football athletes recognize each other by bell sounds on the ball, and the sand bed has been far better than scaffolding to limit acoustic resonance.
The Paralympics Tickets Are Really Selling
As of 7 August, 1.3 million of the 2.8 million available tickets had been sold, but the biggest difference between this event and the Paralympics is that tickets cost less—they are mostly around $25.
By 21 August, 1.75 million had gone, following the plan that City Hall had been expecting—a massive uptick in sales as Parisians return from holidays, traditionally in the last two weeks of August.
A dozen sports are already 90% full, primarily at iconic venues that were so popular during the Olympic Games, like Versailles, the Eiffel Tower, and the athletics arena. 700,000 sales have been made since the opening ceremony of the Games on 26 July.
The Paralympics Are Using The Same Olympics Venues
The impressive Grand Palais will see wheelchair fencing, the Invalides, archery, and the Arena Champ-de-Mars for judo and wheelchair rugby. The Arena Porte de La Chapelle will host badminton and weightlifting, and the Arena Paris Sud will host boccia (a sport for the motor-impaired), goalball (a ball sport for the visually impaired), and table tennis.
Athletics takes place in the Stade de France, seated volleyball in the Villepinte in the north arena, and Versailles is again taking center stage for equestrian events. There is cycling at the Vélodrome National, and the backdrop for Leon Marchand’s impressive five-medal haul will once again host swimming.
The Paralympics will run from Wednesday, 28 August, to Sunday, 8 September 2024.
This article was originally published on forbes.com.
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