Appointment.
In the spirit of Olympic Day, which has been on the calendar since the spectacular premiere in 2017 (90 events had been organized in the regions; in Paris, trampolines had been installed in the gallery of the Petit Palais; the Concorde had been transformed into a velodrome and a 17 m diving board had been placed on the Alexandre-III bridge), the first Paralympic day will take place this Saturday in Paris.
The result of four to five months of reflection and three days of installation.
“This is the first, it is intended to last. We try, since the candidacy, to give a particular ambition to the Olympic days, and now Paralympic, to create extraordinary moments and meetings. The symbol is to put the Paralympic dimension in the heart of the city, in one of the most iconic places in Paris, with this column which says something about the necessary cultural and societal revolution. It would be superb if we could leave this as a legacy to the sports movement”,
summarizes Thierry Reboul, executive director of the brand, events and ceremonies of Paris 2024.
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Place de la Bastille, over 15,000 m2, more than one hundred Paralympic and Olympic athletes will come together to participate in demonstrations and challenges: the German Markus Rehm, nicknamed "Blade Jumper" (para-athletics, triple Paralympic long jump champion T64; who hoisted the record to 8.66 m, only 24 cm from the famous record of Bob Beamon which had stood for twenty-three years), the members of the French team Arnaud Assoumani (para-athletics), Marie- Amélie Le Fur (para-athletics), Sandrine Martinet (parajudo), Nelia Barbosa (paracanoe), Perle Bouge (para-rowing), Maxime Valet (armchair fencing), Marie Patouillet (para-cycling), Mandy François-Elie (para-athletics ), Alexis Hanquinquant (paratriathlon)… will share the bill with Florent Manaudou (gold medalist in the London pools in 2012,silver in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021), Romain Cannone (Olympic fencing champion in Tokyo) or Martin Fourcade (biathlon legend)…
Three playgrounds will be planted to test a dozen Paralympic sports: wheelchair basketball, boccia (boules related to petanque), blind football, wheelchair fencing, para-athletics, para-rowing, para-badminton, para-judo, para-table tennis , paratriathlon, wheelchair tennis and sitting volleyball.
Experiences will also be offered: wheelchair handball, wheelchair BMX (WCMX), para-climbing, showdown, laser run…
“All Paralympic initiatives are there to shed light, to project the vision we have to fight for inclusion. It creates a moment of civility. It's not enough. Behind this, this must generate policies, but what we are looking for is to shine the spotlight on men and women who are talked about too little, on their daily difficulties, aiming for better integration into the city and in life",
emphasizes Thierry Reboul.
The same logo
“The Paralympic Games are a golden opportunity. A great opportunity for France. They are two chapters of the same story. They complete each other. They will make us live an incredible summer of 2024 to celebrate exceptional athletes and offer emotions to as many people as possible. This is the first time that our country will organize the Paralympic Summer Games. It's an incredible event, with 4,400 athletes coming from over 180 countries, incredible performances and life stories. It is also a challenge. We start from a bit far, it is still quite unknown in France. For the first time, we will have the same logo, a French team which values with the same ambition able-bodied or disabled athletes, the same competition sites to celebrate the Paralympic Games: the Invalides
(para-archery),
the Grand Palais
(armchair fencing and parataekwondo),
the Champ-de-Mars
(para judo and armchair rugby),
the Château de Versailles
(para-equestrian)…
There is this desire to integrate the issues around the Paralympic Games into all our actions and our scope.
“Terre de Jeux” is municipalities that must commit to the Paralympics with as much ambition as to the Olympic Games.
And the Paris 2024 club offers meetings with Paralympic athletes”,
likes to repeat Tony Estanguet, the president of the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
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On the central stage of the Place de la Bastille, there will also be shows with the acrobat Karim Randé, the dancer Bboy Haiper and concerts (Myd, Chilla) to punctuate the Paralympic day, which, from noon to 9 p.m., will take festive tunes.
22 teams of 7 runners (selected from Club Paris 2024 and Team Orange Running) will try to win a bib for the marathon for all (whose route, inspired by the women's march of 1789, was revealed this week).
"We were inspired by the Palio of Siena
(a horse race on the central square, editor's note),
the participants will run around the Bastille
(6 loops),
overflowing a little towards the Arsenal bridge, with the spectators in the middle,”
says Thierry Reboul.
At 657 days from the Paralympic Games, Nantenin Keita sums up the sporting and societal challenges of the Paralympic challenge:
“Two years, for an athlete, is short…”