Two weeks after the conclusion of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the French capital is set to host its first Paralympic Gameswhich will begin this Wednesday, August 28, and end on September 8.
This will be the seventeenth edition of the Paralympic Games. Paris will host Between 4,400 and 4,500 athletes from 185 different countries and will compete in 22 different sports: wheelchair basketball, boccia, wheelchair fencing, blind football, goalball, athletics, badminton, track cycling, road cycling, weightlifting, equestrian, judo, swimming, canoeing, rowing, taekwondo, table tennis, archery, Olympic shooting, triathlon, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair tennis and sitting volleyball.
Throughout the eleven days of competition, there will be 549 medal events of each and every sporting modality. There will be a total of 18 headquartersall of them spread throughout Paris and its surroundings.
Opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games
This Wednesday will be celebrated The opening gala of the Paris 2024 Paralympic GamesJust as happened at the Olympic Games – which included that controversial offensive performance against Catholicism – the ceremony will take place outside a stadium, but instead of on the River Seine – as was the case at the previous event – the athletes will walk down the Champs Elysees and end up at the emblematic Place de la Concorde.
As happened at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the competent authorities have prepared a extensive security deployment to prevent any problems or unforeseen events from occurring. It is estimated that around 65,000 people will attend the opening.
The United States’ Paralympic hegemony
The U.S. team swept the Olympics once again, maintaining its dominance at the biggest international sporting event. A superiority that is also evident at the Paralympic Games and is expected to continue after the conclusion of this new edition, starting as one of the big favourites.
In the sixteen times the Paralympic Games have been held, the United States has managed to conquer a total of 2,066 medalsdivided into 731 gold, 656 silver and 679 bronze. At Tokyo 2020, the delegation finished in fourth place in the medal table (104 medals), behind China (207), the United Kingdom (124) and the team made up of athletes from the former Soviet republics under the acronym PRC (118).
This status as a favourite is thanks, in large part, to athletes such as Oksana Masters or Matt Stutzman. The cyclist has already conquered 17 medals in different categories at both the Summer Paralympic Games and the Winter Paralympic Games: seven gold, seven silver and three bronze. Stutzman, for his part, starts as Big contender for gold in the archery test.
The athlete will also attend Hunter Woodhallwhose wife, Tara Davis-Woodhall, won gold in the women’s long jump at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
2024-08-28 13:48:11