Aug 28, 2024, 1:00 PM ET
The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games opened with 4,400 participants from a record 167 countries, plus the refugee team.
PARIS – Paris raised the curtain on Wednesday Paralympic Games boasting of celebrating the largest edition universal and egalitarian in history by having 4,400 participants, a record of 167 countries represented plus another refugee team and 96 neutral athletes.
These 168 delegations represent an improvement on the previous record of 164 in the Paralympic Games of London 2012 and Tokyo 2020, with three countries (Eritrea, Kiribati y Kosovo) making his Paralympic debut.
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Among the 4,400 athletes taking part in 549 medal events in 22 sports, there are records for women (1,983) and for the proportion of women (45%, compared to 55% men). The previous highs were at Tokyo 2020, with 1,846 female athletes (42%).
The first Paralympic Games were held in Rome in 1960 and featured 400 athletes. Since then, the number of competitors has increased with each edition, except in two specific cases, reaching 4,393 in Tokyo 2020.
China, which has topped the medal table at every Paralympic Games since Athens 2004, will have the largest delegation at Paris 2024, with 282 athletes (124 men and 158 women). Brazil will provide the second largest (255), ahead of France (237), United States (220) and Great Britain (201).
A total of 35 countries will break their records for the number of female athletes in one Games and 27 will have more women than men competing.
Athletics will have the largest number of athletes (1,135), ahead of swimming (608) and table tennis (281).
The most accessible Paralympics: YouTube and TikTok
Gonzalo Fuentes/Pool Photo via AP
Paris 2024 will be “the most accessible Paralympic Games in history”, according to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) as broadcast rights holders (television and radio) from more than 160 countries and territories have committed to broadcast them. Tokyo 2020 was broadcast in 154 countries and territories, with a cumulative audience of 4.1 billion viewers.
Besides, YouTube will complement the coverage of official broadcasters with nearly 1,400 hours of live coverage of the 22 sports, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies.
The application TikTokthanks to its ‘Live Gifts’, will raise funds during the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games that will be used to promote the development of Paralympic sport around the world, thanks to an agreement with the IPC.
Paris 2024 will make history by being the first Paralympic Games to offer live coverage of each of the 22 sports, something that has never happened before. At Tokyo 2020, 19 sports were broadcast and at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, 15 sports were shown live.
Iconic venues
Paris 2024 will also go down in history as the first Games in which the Paralympic flame was lit in Stoke Mandeville (United Kingdom), the birthplace of Paralympic sport. After crossing the Eurotunnel, the flame was digitally multiplied by twelve in Calais and has travelled to various parts of France with 1,200 relay runners carrying the torch.
The competitions will take place in many of the Olympic venues and facilities, just 18 days after the Olympic flame was extinguished at the Stade de France on 11 August.
They repeat as headquarters the Bercy Arena (wheelchair basketball), Palace of Versailles (equestrian sports), Grand Palais (wheelchair fencing and taekwondo), Esplanade des Invalides (archery), Paris La Défense Arena (swimming), Pont Alexandre III (triathlon), Eiffel Tower Stadium (5-a-side football for the blind), Roland Garros (wheelchair tennis), Stade de France (athletics) and Velodrome Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (track cycling).
The Paralympic Games are open to athletes with physical, intellectual and visual disabilities, cerebral palsy or acquired brain damage.
The official programme includes twenty-two sports over eleven days of competition: athletics, badminton, wheelchair basketball, boccia, cycling, wheelchair fencing, 5-a-side football, goalball, judo, weightlifting, equestrian, swimming, canoeing, rowing, taekwondo, table tennis, wheelchair tennis, archery, shooting, triathlon, wheelchair rugby and sitting volleyball.
In total, 549 medal events will be held, of which 271 will be for men, 235 for women and 43 for mixed events. These competitions will take place in 17, spread mainly between the city centre (nine) and the Saint-Dennis area in the north (three). The other five are located in the suburbs or in nearby towns.
