One month after the start of the Olympic event in Paris, the city of light reactivates the sporting climate and began the Paralympic Games with a three-hour show that sought to highlight “all bodies.” Starting with this ceremony, tomorrow the competition will officially begin, which will feature 4,400 athletes representing 168 delegations will compete until Sunday, September 8.
After a brief two-week break since the end of the Olympic Games“The party continues,” said Brazilian Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee (ICC). ANDThe prestigious French theater director Thomas Jolly I had anticipated that the show would be something “never seen before”.
The ceremony began with A journey “from discord” to Concordname of the square where the show took placeand with a new interpretation of a French classic. In the middle of the Parisian sunset and with the Eiffel Tower and the Grand Palais as a great backdrop, the stage was filled with dancers for a show full of meaning.
Some 140 artists in suits and 16 others with disabilities dressed in shades of blue, red and white danced to the piano melodies of Chilly GonzalesThe two groups introduced a “paradox”, a word that artistic director Thomas Jolly decided to give the ceremony its title: a society that wants to be more inclusive, but must continue to make efforts to integrate people with disabilities.
As both groups danced, largely ignoring each other, the French artist Christine and the Queens came on stage to add some rhythm to the performance.
Unlike Celine Dion’s classic rendition of Edith Piaf’s famous “Hymne à l’amour” during the Olympic opening ceremony, Christine and the Queens were in charge of starring in the grand musical act of this afternoon’s opening with an electropop version of the celebrated 20th-century artist’s “Non, je ne regrette rien.”
French President Emmanuel Macron gave a speech at the ceremony and officially declared the Paris Paralympic Games “open.”
To close the long event, five French para-athletes, including the flag bearers Nantenin Keita and Alexis Hanquinquantlit the Paralympic cauldron in the Tuileries Garden. The Paralympic champion and the reigning Paralympic triathlon champion were accompanied by Charles-Antoine Kouakou (athletics), Elodie Lorandi (swimming) and Fabien Lamirault (table tennis).
The Argentine Paralympic delegation paraded in Paris
The Argentine delegation’s turn in the parade of countries came after Saudi Arabia. At the head of the 70 athletes who will represent the country at these Games were the sprinter Hernan Barreto (double bronze medalist in Rio de Janeiro 2016 and with another third place in London 2012) and the table tennis player Constance Garrone
Argentina will be present in 14 disciplines, the second largest participation in the country’s history.
The world’s first parastronaut was in charge of carrying the Paralympic flag
At the end of the ceremony, the British John McFallthe first disabled astronaut, was in charge of carrying the Paralympic flag.
John McFall.jfif
Paris 2024
The 43-year-old Paralympic champion and retired sprinter is currently training to become the first disabled man to go into space. “Astronauts are the envoys of humanity and its representatives… and I am part of humanity,” he explained in an interview with AFP on the eve of the opening ceremony.
According to the Briton, the growing popularity of the Paralympic Games reflects a change in society’s mentality towards people with disabilities, which is now seen as “more normal, although it’s a difficult word because what is normal?”
A show that seeks to end prejudices related to disability
In total, some 4,400 athletes from 168 delegations paraded from the Champs-Élysées on Wednesday.considered by the French as “the most beautiful avenue in the world”, to the Place de la Concorde, where a central stage around the famous obelisk will host the show ‘Paradoxe’ (Paradox).
In this place, where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette lost their heads during the Revolution and which later became a symbol of the reconciliation of the French people, Jolly had anticipated a ‘show’ that will give value to “all bodies”.
Argentine delegation to the 2024 Paralympics.jpg
Courtesy of the Argentine Paralympic Committee
The artistic director, who directed the praised but also controversial opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, urged on Monday escape from “stereotypes of heroes related to people with disabilities.”
Step by step of the ceremony
Some 30,000 spectators They followed the show from the stands set up in the Place de la Concorde and another 15,000 people did so in a free area at the bottom of the Champs-Élysées. Like the opening ceremony on July 26, the Paralympic Games were the first in history to be held in the heart of the city. and the “level of ambition” is the same, organizers said.
Some 150 dancers, including around twenty with disabilities, were under the direction of Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman.known for his more than 50 artistic creations and for his collaborations with the Paris Opera and the Boston Ballet. The show represented what Jolly described on Monday as “a dream” in which “disabled and non-disabled artists create a kind of new games, simply games, neither Olympic nor Paralympic.” “It is a utopia that we must strive towards”he added.
Paris2024 Dancers.jpg
Courtesy of The Newspaper
As the celebrations in Place de la Concorde progress, the flame will continue its journey, which began on Saturday in Stoke Mandeville, in the United Kingdom, the historic birthplace of the Paralympic Games. Upon its arrival on Sunday in Calais, in northern France, The fire split into twelve torches that travelled around the country and will meet again on Wednesday in Paris.
Source: Ambito
