"Same fight !" : in Paris, the first Paralympic day brings together athletes beyond disability

The breath held, the silence on both sides of the sandy track, and suddenly burst of " 

 ", applause to the young man who gets up, camped on two prostheses.

Speed, skill, mastery… The performance is there, and the public of the Place de la Bastille (XIth) almost forgets that the person who signs it is an athlete with a disability.

At the unprecedented Paralympic Day this Saturday, a festive and sometimes spectacular preview of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the athletes showed that "Anything is possible".

Jumping, running, rowing, rolling, shooting, throwing baskets, climbing or knocking down a judo opponent.

"A Lesson of Will"

"It's super impressive, these athletes give us a bit of a lesson in willpower", admires a mother who came with her two children to attend wheelchair basketball demonstrations.

“I tried, I find it difficult because we are really low”, analyzes a thirty-year-old, wobbling on the wheelchair loaned to visitors tempted by the experience.

" Respect !

“, he lets go, smiling.

In basketball, "the players evolve on the same ground and the basket is at the same height as classic basketball", specifies a presenter of the demonstration stand.

The difference is made as in “normal” sport: in the technique and in the mind.

Place de la Bastille (XIth) this Saturday.

Performance, taste for sport, taste for others... A hundred athletes took part in the demonstrations of the first Paralympic day organized in Paris.

A little further on, fencers compete in wheelchairs, table tennis players, and further still children with masked eyes try their hand at target shooting.

“All that is not easy,” notes a visitor.

"We don't know much in fact, I would never have thought that we could do

(

's note , acrobatic tricks on a bicycle or motorbike) with a wheelchair!

And yet yes.

The demonstration track is full, bike and wheelchairs on the same inclined planes.

"To see them it seems easy", comments Justine.

This Parisian retiree understands better why her grandson, himself a disabled athlete despite a cerebellar tumor which left him with several consequences, “says all the time to stop being afraid for him”.

These after-effects “now make it difficult for him to walk and he can't see very well, yet he doesn't stop, she continues.

Seeing these athletes shows that they can do a lot of things”.

They will prove it in two years in Paris, from August 28 to September 8, 2024, in 23 disciplines, including the ten specialties presented this Saturday in the heart of the capital.

Place de la Bastille (XIth) this Saturday.

Performance, taste for sport, taste for others... A hundred athletes took part in the demonstrations of the first Paralympic day organized in Paris.

The other objective of this day organized by the City, less sporting and almost philosophical, is also to sweep away some received ideas.

"Let's work for inclusion", thus proclaims a banner of the Paralympic village set up on the Parisian square, between demonstrations and information stands for clubs and the national school sports union.