Paris Paralympics close with a party after ‘historic summer’
Sign up now: Get the biggest sports news in your inbox
PARIS – The Paralympics closed on Sept 8 with a giant music-fuelled party as chief Paris 2024 organiser Tony Estanguet said the Games and the Olympics had created a “historic summer”.
The Paralympic flame and cauldron were extinguished before a concert featuring the best of French electronic music capped off proceedings at a packed Stade de France.
More than 4,400 athletes from 168 Paralympic delegations partied despite persistent rain.
Estanguet said the closing ceremony marked the end of six weeks of Olympic and Paralympic fervour in the City of Light.
The former Olympic gold-medal winning canoeist said that period would remain “etched in people’s memories”.
“This summer, France had a date with history, and the country showed up,” he said.
“This summer when people talked to each other, this summer when France was happy,” said Estanguet, referring to how France had been left deeply divided by snap elections just weeks before the Olympics opened.
The next Paralympics will take place in Los Angeles in 2028.
In the official handover, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo passed the Paralympic flag to International Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons, who gave it to Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass – the first black woman mayor to receive the Paralympic flag during the closing ceremony.
“Nobody wants these Games to come to an end,” said Estanguet.
“We beat a lot of records, so tonight let’s beat another one. I’m asking you to give the para athletes the longest, loudest, craziest ovation they ever received,” he added to deafening cheers from the 64,000 spectators, in sharp contrast to boos from the crowd when French President Emmanuel Macron appeared.
Broadway star Ali Stroker then sang the American national anthem before a film was shown of a band performing on a Californian beach as skateboarders and wheelchair athletes performed tricks.
Despite initial fears about ticket sales, the Paralympics took place in mainly full stadiums, benefiting from the feel-good factor from the highly successful Olympics which ended on Aug 11.
Parsons said the Paris Paralympics had shown that “change starts with sport”.
The level of the sport in Paris, the organisation and the gender parity of the competitors had set a “benchmark” for future Paralympics, he said.
The hour-long electronic concert was kicked off by composer Victor le Masne as LED bracelets worn by the crowd and athletes on the field lit up the stadium.
The 24-artiste show with highlights including French synthesizer legend Jean-Michel Jarre, Cassius, Busy P and Kungs was rounded off in style by DJ Martin Solveig, who finished his set with 2010 hit Hello and then Daft Punk’s One More Time.
China finished top of the medals table in Paris, as they have at every Paralympics since Athens 2004.
They had 94 golds, followed by Britain with 49 and the United States with 36.
Ukraine’s athletes overcame the formidable obstacles posed by their country’s war with Russia to finish in seventh place with 22 golds and host nation France were eighth with 19.
In amputee track athletes Hunter Woodhall and 19-year-old Ezra Frech, the US have found charismatic faces who are sure to play a prominent role in the build-up to LA 2028. AFP, REUTERS
