Joyful ceremony kickstarts Paris 2024 Paralympics
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PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron declared the Paralympic Games open on Aug 28, after a glorious ceremony in which competitors were celebrated by joyful volunteers and spectators on a sweet summer night.
The event on the Champs Elysees and the Place de la Concorde was the first Paralympics curtain-raiser to be held outside a stadium.
The 4,400 competitors from 168 delegations paraded into the arena as hosts France entered last to a standing ovation from 30,000 spectators packed into the stands around the historic square.
Security was tight, with some 15,000 law-enforcement officers on site, but there was a light summer feeling to the evening as the sun slowly set on Paris.
“Dear athletes, welcome to the country of love and revolution. Rest assured, tonight, no Storming of the Bastille, no guillotine, because tonight the most beautiful revolution starts – the Paralympic revolution,” Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet said in his speech.
“It’s a sweet revolution that will change all of us deeply.”
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.
Artistes with disabilities and impairments screamed a countdown and French singer Christine and the Queens delivered a pop rendition of Edith Piaf’s Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien.
French singer Christine and the Queens performs during the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony at the Place de la Concorde Julien De Rosa.
PHOTO: REUTERS
In one of the highlights of the ceremony, French singer Lucky Love, who is missing his left arm below the elbow, performed a moving rendition of his song My Ability surrounded by both able-bodied and disabled dancers.
The event, directed by Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman and featuring 500 artistes, 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.
The athletes’ parade started from the bottom of the Champs Elysees in a festive atmosphere with volunteers cheering and dancing.
As the French reached the square, Yann Tiersen’s theme of Amelie was played on the loudspeaker before the crowd chanted “Allez Les Bleus” with the scintillating Eiffel Tower in the background.
International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president Andrew Parsons then told the athletes and spectators he hoped for an “inclusion revolution”, before Mr Macron officially declared the Games open.
The Paralympic flag was carried by Briton John McFall, who won a 100-metre bronze medal in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics before becoming the first person with a physical disability to be effectively cleared for future missions by the European Space Agency.
(From left) France’s paralympic torchbearers, Charles-Antoine Kaoukou, Nantenin Keita, Fabien Lamirault, Alexis Hanquinquant and Elodie Lorandi hold the Paralympic flame in front of the Paralympic cauldron.
PHOTO: AFP
After a relay of the torch through the Jardin des Tuileries, the cauldron, 17 days after the Olympics ended, was lit again near the Louvre Museum by five French paralympic athletes – Alexis Hanquinquant (triathlon), Nantenin Keita (athletics), Elodie Lorandi (swimming), Charles-Antoine Kouakou (athletics) and Fabien Lamirault (table tennis).
The ceremony ended with fireworks and another cover by Christine and the Queens, of Patrick Hernandez’s 1978 hit Born To Be Alive, before Serge Gainsbourg’s Je T’aime Moi Non Plus resonated around Place de la Concorde.
A total of 18 of the 35 Olympic venues will also be used for the Paralympics, which run until Sept 8. REUTERS, AFP
