Paris turns the floodlights back on and fills the stands again for the 17th Paralympic Games
The hot air balloon is preparing for another flight and the Olympic flame will be lit again in the city of light, before the cheers for the successful Paris Games are well and truly scattered to the winds. It’s the turn of the indomitable heroes of life, those who defy their disability and climb mountain peaks unconsidered even by the able-bodied, to take the stage. The Paralympic Games will begin on Wednesday and end on September 8. “If we were talking about football, we would say that this is the repeater” says the president of the “Paris 2024” Organizing Committee Tony Estange. The best goals are usually scored in the replay.
The opening ceremony will take place this time outside the stadium, next to the emblematic monuments of the city. Athletes will march down the Champs Elysées to gather at the Place de la Concorde,
where stands will be set up for 65,000 spectators. The Paralympic Village in St Denis has beds for 17,000 athletes and is designed around the specific needs and skills of the people who will be housed there. About 280,000 people with disabilities will attend the games of the 17th Summer Paralympics.
The facilities
The French made sure to breathe new life into the facilities used for the Olympic Games, so that there would be corresponding glamour. 5×5 football will be played in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. Horse riding in the most luxurious Palace of Versailles. Archery in the historic Invalid complex (Palace of the Armies). Fencing and tae kwon do at the Grand Palace. The triathlon, yes yes, in the murky waters of the Seine, starting from the Alexander III Bridge.
It goes without saying that tennis will be played at Roland Garros, basketball at Bercy, swimming at the Défense pools, athletics and the closing ceremony at the Stade de France, bocce and table tennis at the Arena de Paris south, shooting at Satoru. We said, Paris did not build “white elephants” to house the double celebration. The shadowy streets of its eastern suburbs await cyclists and the TV directors will do their best to send another fully alive “postcard” to the ends of the earth.
70% of the 2.4 million tickets released for the Paralympics have already been sold, while the rest have a ceiling of 25 euros and are leaving at a rate of about 25-30 thousand per day. “From July 25 onwards, approximately 400,000 tickets were purchased,” the organizers announced. “It is clear that the success of the Olympic Games warmed the public and increased the desire to participate.” Wheelchair fencing, tae kwon do, track cycling and horse riding are already sold out, as are the wheelchair rugby and blind football finals. For track and field, swimming and wheelchair basketball, tickets are in demand.
“I lack nothing but your applause” is the official Paralympic slogan for the Games that begin on Wednesday. “The Games are not over yet” read the posters plastered on the walls of Paris. Residents of the metropolis now returning from summer vacations in the Caribbean and Greece have before them a second chance to experience the Olympic atmosphere. Volunteer applications exceeded 300 thousand. Those foreigners who experienced the fervor of the French fans on the days of the Olympic Games bet that the vast Stade de France will be full every afternoon. Paris is no Singapore, but it regularly appears on lists of the world’s most accessible cities. How do we say… Athens? No relation.
The Greek mission
The first athletes to appear in the doll-shaped Concorde Square will, as usual, be the Greek flag bearers: the Manolis StefanoudakisRio Paralympic gold medalist in javelin, and judo champion Theodora Paschalidou. THE Grigoris Polychronidis and the Anna Deda (bocia), the gold sprinter of Tokyo Nasos Gavelasthe long jumper Stelios Malakopoulosthe thrower Thanasis Konstantinidisthe swimmers Alexandra Stamatopoulou, Demosthenes Michalentzakis and Antony Tsapatakisthe weightlifter Dimitris Bakochristos are some of the recognizable faces of the multi-member group.
There will also be representation in fencing, horse riding, tae kwon do, judo, archery, shooting. Of the 37 Greek athletes who are already in Paris for the Paralympic Games, 13 have Olympic medals under their belt. The excellent Polychronidis already counts six, starting in 2012 in London. Greece has continuously participated in the Paralympic Games since 1976 (Toronto).
The delegation left for France with the wishes of the Deputy Minister of Sports Yannis Vroutsis. The president of the Hellenic Paralympic Committee George Kapellakisonce a swimmer, is the same man who was once displaced from the official’s platform in one of his Lefteri Avgenakisbefore magnanimously accepting his apologies. The ND government is the same government that opposed the rights of the disabled in the European Parliament, although it sent to Brussels the Stelio Kimbouropoulos. And many Vroutsis will be the first to rush to the airport to declare national pride when our athletes return from Paris with medals.
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