Published on 08/25/2024 3:07 p.m.
Video length: 1 min
Paralympic flame arrives in France via the Channel Tunnel Paralympic flame arrives in France via the Channel Tunnel
Twenty-four British athletes carried the flame through the Channel Tunnel before passing it halfway to 24 of their French counterparts, who arrived in France around 1pm.
The Paralympic flame is on French soil. Carried by Emmanuelle Assmann, a wheelchair fencing medallist, the flame arrived in France on Sunday 25 August via the Channel Tunnel. Three days before the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, it was welcomed shortly after 1pm in Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais) by the Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games Amélie Oudéa-Castera, Tony Estanguet, the head of Paris 2024 (Cojop) as well as a guard of honour formed by members of the organising committee and children wearing white volunteer t-shirts.
The handover of the flame between British and French torchbearers took place in the middle of the Eurotunnel service tunnel at around 12:20 p.m., while the flame was lit on Saturday in Stoke Mandeville (Great Britain), the historic birthplace of the Paralympic Games. The flame is to continue its journey to Calais where the cauldron will be lit at 5 p.m. It will then be divided into twelve Paralympic flames, each of which will take its own direction in around fifty towns. These 12 simultaneous relays, orchestrated by a thousand torchbearers throughout France, will then meet up in Paris on 28 August for the opening ceremony.
