Paralympics 2024: Paris Set to Dazzle with A Distinctive Opening Ceremony
As the Summer Olympics in Paris finally close in triumphant style two weeks to the day afterwards, Paris can prepare for the 17th Paralympics, which begin tonight. The city is preparing for an opening ceremony that will be as special as the Paralympics 2024 Games themselves to have 4,400 para-athletes from 184 countries to prove that they are incredible.
The opening ceremony of Paralympics 2024, directed by the theatre director Thomas Jolly takes a theatrical view of recent Olympic Games yet with a positively different approach. Unlike what we are used to seeing in stadiums, athletes will process along the famous Avenue des Champs-Elysées before converging at the Place de la Concorde which is the largest in Paris.
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The event will unfold in this remarkable historical setting, which witnessed the history of the French Revolution: the beheading of King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie-Antoinette, in this famous palace constructed in the reign of the Kings.
For the athletes, the choice of location brings historical perspective to the opening ceremony of Paralympics 2024. Once the square has been the place of guns and people fighting for change but tonight, the square will become a symbol of strength and inspirational values, with athletes of the world assembled in the capital city of France.
However, this grandeur setting is also a complex for Team Ireland as well because it comes with the feelings.
The seventh-ranked table-tennis player Colin Judge and the 400-metre runner Orla Comerford have been selected as the Irish flag bearers.
Nevertheless, only about a third of the 35 athletes of Team Ireland will march in the official parade due to their concern on the competitions lined up for them the next few days; 18 of them are slated to compete within the first two days of the parade.
Tonight’s ceremony will involve over 150 dancers, suddenly many of them are impedance, which we all want to emphasise the significance of dance as the language of communication.
This choice underscores the message from the organisers: The Paralympics 2024 are equally meaningful, vibrant, and thrilling as the Olympic Games are. Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet summed up this spirit earlier this month when he referred to the Games as ‘the rematch’, meaning that everyone will ensure that the same impact is left on global audiences by the Paralympics.
The main Olympic village was ready-made and demolished after the games while 18 other locations around Paris continue to exist and operate, the stadium included, where French banners with Paris 2024 inscribed on them adorn the stands.
Getting Into The Action For Paralympics 2024
City has fully endorsed the Games with ticket sales exceeding two million and another half a million up for grabs. Compared with the ticket sales of the Olympic Games which reached 400 thousand during this period, the public interest in the Paralympics is increasing.
As the opening ceremony is the official start of the Paralympic Games today, tomorrow the participants and spectators will be able to enjoy the actual sporting events, and Team Ireland will have a very tight schedule.
Ireland will be competing in archery, swimming, and track cycling with seven athletes in total. In Waterloo Swimming Pool, swimmers Dearbhaile Brady, Nicole Turner and Róisín Ní Ríain will swim in their rounds to qualify for the finals’ races in what will be the second instalment of the competition in the evening. Ní Ríain, in particular, will be in search of more than her European bronze in the S13 100m butterfly.
Another athlete who will be shooting from the first day is para archer Kerrie Leonard, who will shoot 72 arrows at distances of either 50 metres or 70 metres in the ranking round. At the velodrome the cyclists; Damien Vereker with Mitchell McLaughlin and Martin Gordon with Eoin Mullen, will be in the men’s B4 4000m individual pursuit. Richael Timothy will be up for the women’s 3000m individual pursuit event in an attempt to build up her Paralympics run.
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With the momentum growing and all arrangements made, Paris is ready to host the Paralympics 2024 that will be interesting and motivating for spectators all over the world. The creative concept of the opening ceremony was eye-popping but only a hint to what could only be a memorable celebration of human body achievement and spirit.
