The 2024 Paralympic Games kicked off on Wednesday, August 28, 2024, in Paris, the capital of France, and is already promising to be a spectacular one. Unlike the recently concluded 2024 Olympic Games, the opening ceremony happened without controversy.
In addition, the multi-sports para events will see more than 4,000 athletes from around the world competing in 549 medal events. Organisers have revealed that more than two million of the 2.8 million tickets have been sold for the various Paralympic events.
Therefore, here is everything you need to know about the 2024 Paralympic Games.
What is 2024 Paralympic Games?
The 2024 Paralympic Games is an international multi-sports para event that is taking place from August 28, 2024, to September 8, 2024. It is the 17th Summer Paralympic Games and it is being held in Paris, the French capital.
About 4,463 across 169 nations will participate in 549 medal events in 22 sports.
Historically, the Paralympic Games originated in Stoke Mandeville, a military hospital north of London, England, in 1948. The idea was conceived by a German neurologist, Ludwig Guttmann, who came up with a way of encouraging physical exercise among his paraplegic patients, victims and veterans of the Second World War. Hence, he organised the first World Wheelchair and Amputee Games, which later became the Stoke Mandeville Games.
However, the ninth Mandeville Games, held in Rome in 1960, is recognised as the first Paralympic Games mostly because it was held a week after the Olympic Games.
Meanwhile, Paris will be hosting the summer Paralympic events for the first time. Events will also be held in the suburbs of Saint-Denis, Versailles and Vaires-sur-Marne.
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2024 Paralympic Games qualification
To participate in the 2024 Paralympic Games, athletes must meet certain sports-specific standards as determined by the International Paralympic Committee. The IPC’s vision is “to enable Paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence and inspire and excite the world”.
Hence, the Paralympics welcomes athletes from 10 categories of impairment: impaired muscle power; impaired range of movement; limb deficiency; leg length difference; short stature; hypertonia; ataxia (affecting muscle coordination); athetosis (such as cerebral palsy); vision impairment and intellectual disability.
To participate, athletes must meet certain qualifying standards. For athletics, qualification slots are awarded to the National Paralympic Committee (NPC), not individual athletes. Each NPC is awarded a maximum of 40 male and 33 female slots (73 total slots). Exceptions may be granted through the Bipartite Commission Invitation method.
Again, each NPC may enter a maximum of three eligible athletes per individual medal event, six eligible athletes in each marathon event and one team in the relay medal event.
Below is the general qualification for the 2024 Paralympic Games methods.
- Placement at World Championships.
- Placement at Regional/Zonal Championships or Regional Games.
- Placement in other IF-sanctioned competitions or designated Paralympic qualifiers.
- Rank on a World or Regional Ranking List.
- Rank on a specific Paralympic Qualification Ranking List.
- Achievement of a Minimum Qualification Standard (MQS) with or without subsequent Quota Allocation Formula.
- Team Completion.
- Bipartite Commission Invitations.
Methods one, two and three are referred to as “direct slot allocations” as they reward performance at one competition directly with a qualification slot.
For more information about the 2024 Paralympic Games qualification, read here.
2024 Paralympic Games opening ceremony
The opening ceremony, which was a joyous and colourful event, was held on August 28, 2024. Athletes paraded down the famed Champs-Elysees avenue to Place de la Concorde in central Paris. The French arrived last and sang along with the roaring to popular French songs, including “Que je t’aime” by the late rocker, Johnny Hallyday. Like the Paris Olympics, this is the first Paralympic opening ceremony to take place outside of a stadium.
The ceremony was directed by Thomas Jolly, with choreography by Alexander Ekman. It was themed around the human body and “history and its paradoxes”.
Also, the ceremony featured singers, dancers and musicians with and without disabilities who performed on stage together seamlessly, projecting a theme of inclusion and overcoming physical differences. Performers included French singer Lucky Love, dancers with crutches, Christine and the Queens.
After the parades, the Paralympic torch was carried into the area by the former Olympic wheelchair tennis gold medallist, Michael Jeremiasz, who was surrounded on stage by dozens of torchbearers. Five French Paralympians lit the Olympic cauldron, which was designed to look like a hot air balloon. The French President Emmanuel Macron, declared the games open.
About 50,000 people watched the ceremony in stands built around the iconic square.
2024 Paralympic Games schedule
You can read the full schedule of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games here.
Athletes to watch at 2024 Paralympic Games
Below are the top five athletes to watch at the 2024 Paralympic Games:
Lauretta Onye – Nigeria
Onye is Nigeria’s living legend in F40 classification throwing events. The Nollywood actress has already won two medals – a gold and a bronze – across two Games and will be searching for her third medal in Paris.
“Para sport has changed my life,” she said. “It has given me moral, physical and even spiritual strength. For Paris, I will train well. I will put some prayers, but you need to work. Nothing falls from heaven. You got to work, work, work.”
Latifat Tijani – Nigeria
Tijani is a powerlifter who won the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and will be looking forward to defending her title in the women’s – 45kg event in Paris. She also won a silver at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio.
Timothee Adolphe – France
The host nation will be looking towards Adolphe as one of the medal hopefuls. The silver medallist in the men’s 100m T11 from Tokyo 2020 is also a six-time World Championship medallist.
Omara Durand – Cuba
Durand made her Paralympic debut at Beijing 2008, running the T13 100m, 200m and 400m, but missed out on the podium on all three. She has since put those disappointments behind her and won gold in two distances at London 2012 and all three at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
Can she keep the success rolling at the 2024 Paralympic Games?
Simone Barlaam – Italy
Barlaam is one of the most accomplished competitors, with an astounding 18 world championship golds and four Paralympic medals from the 2020 Tokyo Games. He swims multiple different strokes in the 50-meter, 100-meter, and 400-meter distances and competes in the S9 category. He will be looking to add to his impressive medal collections in Paris.
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