By Mary Pianta
After two Games without spectators because of the pandemic, Paralympic fans from around the world will be in Paris to cheer for the athletes. Between August 28 and September 8, 549 events in 22 Para-sports have been scheduled for Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. As many as 4,400 athletes will participate in the events which will be held in and around Paris, including the suburbs of St-Denis and Versailles, and Vaires-sur-Marne which is just outside the city environs.
Access to fit-for-purpose training environments, specialised coaching and performance support will be among the key priorities now available through the new Paralympic funding. A record $283 million investment in sport over the next two years will bring monumental changes for Para-sport, but also will supercharge preparations for 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.
The Opening Ceremony will be at Place de la Concorde with capacity of 65,000; the first time to be held outside a stadium. Athletes will parade past beautiful landmarks in Paris to the iconic Concorde. The Stade de France can hold 77,000 spectators for the athletics (track and field) and the Closing Ceremony.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Village will provide residents with everything a neighbourhood should: restaurants, entertainment, beauty salon, healthcare, fitness centre, family areas, cultural offers, transportation services, multi-faith centre, supermarkets, a post office and green spaces. Most athletes will be less than thirty minutes away from their competition venues.
The Olympic Torch Relay began back in April, 100 days before the start of the Games. The four Captains include para-triathlete, Mona Francis and para-athlete, Dimitri Pavade. During May, plans to visit New Caledonia were cancelled due to ongoing unrest in the area. In early June, the Torch visited some islands in the Pacific and countries in Africa, then back to mainland France, reaching Paris by July 14 for Bastille Day celebrations. It was back on the road again for 12 days before returning to Paris for the Opening Ceremony on 26 July. The Olympic Torch has spread the spirit of the Games as it travelled around the country.
An Olympic Phryge and a Paralympic Phryge will be the official mascots, based on the Phrygian cap – a soft, generally red hat, worn by freed slaves in Phrygia (now Turkey area). For French people, it’s a very well-known, historic object that is a symbol of freedom. The fact that the Paralympic mascot has a visible disability also sends a strong message to promote inclusion.
Medals for the 2024 Games will feature hexagon-shaped tokens of scrap iron, taken from the original construction of the Eiffel Tower, with the Games logo engraved into it. The 5,084 medals will show the Parthenon and Eiffel Tower in the background on both sides.
In Sandhurst, we have a very tenuous link with these Games. In 2020, Col Pearse from Bamawm swam in the Tokyo Games, winning a bronze medal in the 100m butterfly and settting an Australian record. He then completed his Year 12 exams before starting to prepare for Paris. He was thrilled when told that he had earned selection for this year’s Games.
Paralympic athletes have a range of disabilities so, to make it fair, they are given different “classifications” for their sports. This allows people with a similar level of impairment to compete against one another.
The ‘para’ in ‘Paralympic Games’ means parallel! The Games were given this name to show that the competition for athletes with impairments worked side-by-side with the more established Olympic Games.
Another first for Paris: Paris 24 will make history as the first Paralympic Games to offer some coverage from each of the 22 sports. Watch Channel 9 in Australia this time!
Mary Pianta, Disability Contact Coordinator. Diocese of Sandhurst.
