Paris 2024 Paralympics: Facts and figures about the 2024 Paralympic Games
The Paralympic torch will be lit tomorrow, 24 August, in Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom – the spiritual home of the Paralympic movement – and make its way across the English Channel to Paris in time for the Opening Ceremony.
It has been quite the journey for the Paralympic Games since Sir Ludwig Guttmann first created the Stoke Mandeville Games in 1948 for wheelchair-bound war returnees.
Discover some facts and figures you may not have known about the 2024 edition of the Summer Paralympics, which run until 8 September.
Paris 2024 Paralympics: Facts and figures about the 2024 Paralympic Games
Paralympic Games firsts
Did you know that the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony will take placeoutside of a stadiumfor the first time?
On 28 August, the Opening Ceremony will take place along the famous Parisian boulevard of theChamps-Élysées, terminating at the iconicPlace de la Concordein the centre of the French capital.
Paris’s public transport – notably its bus and urban tram networks – have undergone accessibility improvements, while all5,288 volunteersfrom the City of Paris have also receiveddisability awareness training.
There are260 volunteerschosen to help specifically withaccessibility issues.
These will be thefirst Summer Paralympics held in Franceand second Paralympic Games overall in France, after Tignes-Albertville hosted the 1992 Paralympic Winter Games.
While these are the 17th summer Paralympic Games, it will be just the 12th to be hosted in the same city that held the Olympic Games, as from 1968 to 1984 the host cities did not match.
Paris 2024 Paralympics: Facts and figures about the 2024 Paralympic Games
Events and athletes at the 2024 Paralympic Games
Did you know there aremore eventsat the Paralympic Games than at the Olympic Games?
While there were 329 events at the recently-concludedOlympic Games Paris 2024, the Paralympics will hold a total of549 medal events, including164 in Para athleticsand141 in Para swimming, which are the two biggest sports.
That’s thanks tovarious classificationsin each sport and event, resulting in different events for wheelchair users, athletes with visual impairments, various upper or lower body impairments including the use of prostheses, intellectual impairments, and others, to ensure aslevel a playing fieldas possible.
Around4,400 athletesfrom180 National Paralympic Committeesare expected to compete, in addition to a Refugee Paralympic Team and Neutral Paralympic Athletes.
TheRefugee Paralympic Teamis made up ofeight athletes and two sighted guides(who are also refugees), making this year’s team thebiggest RPT yet.
And yes, the sighted guides may not have disabilities, but they are full-fledged Paralympians andcan receive medalstoo. Brazil’sGabriel Garciacompeted as part of his country’s men’s 4x100m relay team at the Olympic Games, and will return to Paris as a sighted guide forJerusa dos Santos.
Additionally, men can be sighted guides in women’s events and vice-versa.
The sports and venues for Paris 2024 Paralympics
The nearly 4,400 athletes will contest events in22 sports(23 disciplines, as para cycling is split into road and track events) – a big increase from the inaugural Paralympic Games in 1960, when just eight sports were on the schedule.
In total,16 stadium or arena venues, which were all also used during the Olympic Games, will host competitions during the Paralympics – including the most iconic ones such as theEiffel Tower Stadium(blind football), theGrand Palais(wheelchair fencing and Para taekwondo), and theChâteau de Versailles(Para equestrian).
Of the 22 sports on the programme,none are newfor Paris 2024. Para badminton and para taekwondo are the newest additions, having each made their debuts at the last Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
Most of the Paralympic sports havean equivalent counterparton the Olympic programme, buttwo do not:bocciaandgoalball. Boccia is a bowls-like sport played by athletes in wheelchairs with motor impairments, while goalball has two teams of three players with visual impairments trying to roll a solid ball into the opposing goal.
There is onlyone artistic “judged” sportat the Summer Paralympics:Para equestrian, in the form of thePara dressagediscipline.
That is also one oftwo sportswhich arefully mixedat the Paralympic Games, alongsidewheelchair rugbywhere women play on the same teams as men (there were four women in Tokyo, including one on the gold-winning Great Britain team). Boccia, which used to be a mixed sport, is introducing gender-specific events in Paris.
Many sports are, naturally,adapted for athletes with impairments, such as theinclusion of bellsin the ball in both blind football and goalball to aid the players.
But did you know that theheight of the hoopinwheelchair basketballis3.05m or 10 feet?
Yes, that’sexactly the sameas innon-impaired basketball. Despite being played by athletes in wheelchairs with varying impairments, thecourt,backboards, andhoopall remainstandard FIBA size.
The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games promises to be thrilling. Don’t miss any of the action!