Paralympics Begin in Paris with Four-Hour Ceremony
Just weeks after hosting the Olympics, the 2024 Paralympics began in Paris on August 28 with a nearly four-hour-long opening ceremony in the center of the city.
Thousands of athletes paraded down the Champs-Elysées to Place de la Concorde in central Paris where French President Emmanuel Macron officially declared the Paralympic Games open.
About 50,000 people watched the ceremony in stands built around the iconic square.
More than 4,000 athletes with physical, visual and intellectual impairments are competing in France in 22 sports.
Athletes are grouped by impairment levels to ensure as level a playing field as possible.
Organizers have said that more than 2 million tickets have been sold for the various Paralympic events.
Some countries sent large numbers of athletes — there were more than 250 athletes from Brazil and 176 from Japan. Others sent only a few athletes, with less than a handful from Barbados and just three from Myanmar.
Ukraine's delegation got a loud cheer and some of the crowd stood to applaud them.
Throughout the ceremony, which was directed by Thomas Jolly — who also led the Olympic opening ceremony — singers, dancers and musicians with and without disabilities performed on stage together.
International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons said he hoped the Paris Paralympics would start an "inclusion revolution" beyond the field of sport.
"The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will show what persons with disabilities can achieve at the highest level when the barriers to succeed are removed," he said in a speech.
He added: "The fact these opportunities largely exist only in sport in the year 2024 is shocking. It is proof we can and must do more to advance disability inclusion — whether on the field of play, in the classroom, concert hall or in the boardroom."
The Games will go on until September 8 and the closing ceremony will be held that evening at Stade de France, the national stadium.
