The XVII Summer Paralympic Games started in Paris on Wednesday, August 28, and will last until September 8.
4,400 athletes took part in the opening ceremony of the Summer Paralympics, tells dw. 90 Russians and eight Belarusians were admitted to participate in it in a neutral status.
The opening ceremony began at 20:00 local time on Place de la Concorde. Representatives of more than 180 delegations from around the world took part in the parade of teams on the Champs-Elysees. Athletes participating in the Paralympic Games will compete for medals in 22 sports.
The show was directed by Thomas Jolly, with choreography by Alexander Ekman. On air on the French state radio station RFI, Jolly said that he based the opening ceremony of the Paralympics on inclusivity and the path from disunity to harmony in society, which explains the route of the parade of participants – along the Champs Elysees to the Place de la Concorde, which became the center of the event.
The Paralympic Games will last until September 8. The participating athletes will compete for medals in 22 sports.. Athletes from Russia and Belarus are allowed to participate in the Paralympics only in neutral status due to sanctions imposed in connection with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. These athletes did not participate in the opening ceremony of the Games. They are not allowed to use the flags of their countries, and if they win, the national anthem will not be played.
The TASS news agency, citing the International Paralympic Committee, reported that 90 Russians and eight Belarusians had been allowed to participate in the games. This decision drew criticism. The president of the German Union of Disabled Athletes, Friedhelm Julius Beucher, said that athletes from the Russian Federation and Belarus “have no place” at the Paralympics:
“If the Olympic and Paralympic Games are to convey a message of peace, then athletes from an aggressor country that attacks another country and sows death and destruction there should not be given the opportunity to compete alongside Ukrainian athletes.”
These Paralympic Games will feature the largest ever Refugee Team. Six sports – athletics, powerlifting, taekwondo, table tennis, triathlon and wheelchair racing – will be contested. athletes from Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Cameroon and other countriesThe Refugee Team represents approximately 120 million internally displaced people worldwide.
The Greek delegation led by Manolis Stefanoudakis and Theodora Paschalidou marched along the famous Champs-Elysees avenue ending at Place de la Concorde during the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games in Paris, tells CNN Greece.
Manolis Stefanoudakis – Paralympian and world champion in athletics in javelin throw (his sport) and shot put, having taken part in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London and the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
At the London Paralympic Games, he won a bronze medal in the F54/55/56 javelin throw, his best result in 2012. He also competed in the shot put final, where he finished 17th. At the 2016 Paralympic Games, he won a gold medal in the javelin throw with a throw of 29.45 metres.
Theodora Paschalidou In 2023, she became the first Greek athlete with visual impairment to reach the top of Europe: the 27-year-old judoka won the gold medal at the European Paralympic Championships in Rotterdam in the 70 km J1 category.
Thirty-seven athletes from the Greek national team will compete in 10 sports: swimming, athletics, taekwondo, shooting, archery, horse riding, cycling, weightlifting, judo and boccia*.
The Paralympics are the world's largest sporting event for people with disabilities. They were founded in 1948 by German neurologist Ludwig Guttmann, who fled Nazi Germany to Britain in 1939. The competitions were officially named the Paralympic Games in 1960. Since then, they have been held every four years, and since 1988, in the same location as the Olympics.
*Boccia is a ball game for people with limited mobility, similar to bowling and petanque. Boccia is a Paralympic sport.
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