The Paralympic flame, tested by headwinds since it was first lit or almost, has wavered several times.
Despite Mexico's defection for the 1968 edition, Moscow's refusal for 1980 or the threat five years ago of cancellation in Rio due to a budget crisis, it is still burning.
And a little more than two weeks after the close of the Olympic Games, it will in turn experience the whirlwinds of Covid-19 in Japan, which have already postponed the lighting of the cauldron of the national stadium for a year.
To discover
The full Olympic program
The Olympic medal table
The participants in the Olympics are gone, the coronavirus remains.
In the archipelago, the health situation has not improved since, on the contrary.
In recent days, Japan has recorded a record 25,000 daily cases.
Its “
zero Covid
”
strategy is
shattered against the Delta variant.
Local doctors say hospitals are at breaking point, with severe cases reaching levels not seen since the start of the pandemic in a country that has so far been relatively untouched.
Like their Olympic counterparts, Paralympic athletes will therefore be subject to daily screening for the coronavirus and will not have the right to venture outside their accommodation or the Olympic sites.
General closed door
More frustratingly, they have known for a week that they will compete for the medals in the middle of empty stands in all the venues, as was the case for 98% of the Olympic events. With the difference that for para-athletes, the opportunities are rarer to evolve in front of full stands. "
When I learned that there would be no spectators, I was disappointed because I feed on the public,
" said American archer Matt Stutzman, one of the headliners of the documentary, on Sunday. Rising Phoenix, distributed by Netflix. “
When people see a guy with no arms shooting an arrow right in the middle of a target, the grandstand ignites and it pushes me even harder.
Despite the closed camera imposed, it is athletes with radiant joy who presented themselves at a press conference on Sunday alongside Stutzman.
I've been waiting for this moment for so long, I'm excited to finally be here
Markus Rehm
"
It is certainly the moment of the greatest exhibition and this is the reason why we are very attached to the Games
", summarizes to AFP Stéphane Houdet, one of the two French flag bearers at the ceremony. opening Tuesday (1:00 p.m. French time).
"
I've been waiting for this moment for so long, I'm excited to finally be here,
" enthuses German long jumper Markus Rehm, nicknamed "
Blade Jumper."
»In reference to his prosthesis blade. He who had led - unsuccessfully - a legal battle up to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to compete in the Olympics will be one of the stars of this 16th edition of the Paralympics, made unique by the strength of the Covid. The International Paralympic Committee expects the scope of the 13-day event (August 24 - September 5) to be “
unbelievable
” regardless. "
Of course, the fact that we do not have spectators in the venues is a challenge,
" admitted its president Andrew Parsons in an interview with AFP. "
But we think we will reach over four billion people through TV broadcasting
."
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Among the 22 competing sports, it is wheelchair tennis that will be particularly eye-catching, despite the addition of two very popular sports in Asia, para-badminton and para-taekwondo. The archipelago has the best player in the specialty, Shingo Kunieda, 24 major titles and two Paralympic gold medals in singles. Appointed captain of his delegation, the local star must lead the Japanese team to the same gold rush as two weeks ago at the Olympics, when his 27 medals of the most beautiful metal (57 in total) had allowed him to take the third place in the table. France on the contrary, three years before the 2024 Paris Games, must make people forget the lukewarm record of the Olympic Games (33 podiums out of the expected quarantine). The reconquest mission begins on Wednesday, the day the competitions will begin.