The 2024 Paralympics Kick Off Today! Here's Everything You Need to Know
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
Good news, sports fans—there’s more international competition in store following the close of the Paris 2024 Olympics. The 2024 Paralympics, which are also taking place in Paris, officially kick off today.
Featuring 22 sports and 4,400 athletes from around the world, the 2024 Games will see Paralympians battling for gold in individual and team events, from August 28 through September 8.
This is the first Paralympic Summer Games ever to take place in the City of Light, and you won’t want to miss it. Ahead, find out everything we know about the 2024 Paralympics, from how to watch to which sports will be included, and more.
You can stream the Paralympics or watch on cable TV.
In the United States, all events from the Paris 2024 Paralympics will be available to stream on the Peacock app, while live coverage will air on NBC, CNBC, and USA Network. Meanwhile, you can also follow along on the official Paralympics YouTube channel, as well as the International Paralympic Committee website.
This is a somewhat historic year for coverage when it comes to the Paralympics, because for the first time, NBC will be putting multiple hosts on the ground to cover the event in real time. Sports commentator Andrea Joyce and 2016 Paralympic track and field athlete Lacey Henderson will host the broadcast, while other anchors will commentate from a studio in the United States.
Meanwhile, according to NBC Sports, Peacock will act as the “most comprehensive Paralympic destination in U.S. media history,” with more than 1,500 hours of live coverage of the Paralympic Games.
There will be 22 sports featured at the Paralympics.
The 2024 Paralympics in Paris will feature 22 sports, including: para archery, para athletics, para badminton, blind football, boccia, para canoe, para cycling, para equestrian, goalball, para judo, para powerlifting, para rowing, shooting para sport, sitting volleyball, para swimming, para table tennis, para tae kwon do, para triathlon, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair fencing, wheelchair rugby, and wheelchair tennis.
Two sports at the Paralympics that don’t include an Olympic counterpart are boccia and goalball. The two newest sports are badminton and tae kwon do, both of which made their debut at the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
Paris will host a groundbreaking opening ceremony on August 28.
The 2024 Paralympic Games kick off with the opening ceremony on August 28 at 2:00 p.m. EST. The spectacle will begin with a popular parade on the iconic Champs-Elysées, followed by the official parade, which will take place on the Place de la Concorde public square. It will be open to up to 65,000 spectators (and more than 2 million tickets have already been sold).
The president of the Paris 2024 Games, Tony Estanguet, noted the groundbreaking approach to this opening ceremony, which is the first in Paralympic history to take place outside a stadium (as was also the case with the Olympic opening ceremony). “To ensure that the spotlight is firmly on the achievements of the Paralympic athletes, the values that they embody and the emotions that they inspire in us, Paris 2024 wanted to offer them a groundbreaking showcase by organizing the first Paralympic Games opening ceremony outside the confines of a stadium,” he said. “Looking beyond this exceptional setting offered for the leading athletes and spectators from around the world, this ceremony at the heart of the city is a strong symbol illustrating our ambition to capitalize on our country hosting its first-ever Paralympic Games to position the issue of inclusion for people with disabilities at the heart of our society.”
The project was led by the artistic director for the ceremonies, Thomas Jolly.
The medals will feature pieces from the Eiffel Tower.
To honor the first-ever Paralympics in the City of Light, the International Paralympic Committee went all-out for the medals that will be distributed to athletes. Turns out, each will contain a small piece taken from the Eiffel Tower.
Yep, according to the official Paralympics website, the medals for the Paris 2024 Games will feature “a piece of original iron from the Eiffel Tower”—18 grams, to be exact. And in an effort to honor diversity and inclusion, the medals—designed in collaboration with French jeweler Chaumet—will feature physical engravings and braille.
2024 marks the biggest refugee team in Paralympic history.
In another history-setting milestone, the 2024 Games will see the largest refugee team ever assembled at the Paralympics, with eight athletes and two guide runners forming the squad. The first refugee team was formed back at the 2016 Rio Games.
On his selection as flagbearer for the team, sprinter Guillaume Junior Atangana said, “I am very moved and happy. It gives me shivers. I can already picture it in my head. I see myself as a big champion, the one who made his dreams come true.”
The eight athletes will be hosted across six countries and participate in para athletics, para powerlifting, para table tennis, para taekwondo, para triathlon, and wheelchair fencing.
The Paralympic Games originated 76 years ago following World War II.
Prior to the birth of the Paralympics, disabled athletes took part in the Olympics beginning in the early 20th century. However, all of this changed during the London 1948 Olympics.
In the aftermath of World War II, there was an effort to honor the veterans who had been injured during the war, and in 1944, the British government tapped Dr. Ludwig Guttmann to open a spinal injuries center for these veterans.
Four years later, on the day of the Olympics opening ceremony in London, Dr. Guttmann decided to organize a recreational competition at his center, which featured 16 wheelchair athletes. He named it the Stoke Mandeville Games. Eventually, this would become the Paralympic Games, which debuted in Rome in 1960.
Since then, the Games have taken place every four years, coinciding with the Summer Olympics; in 1976, Winter Paralympics began as well. Since 1988, it has become tradition for both Paralympics to take place in the same cities as their Olympic counterparts, thanks to an agreement between the International Paralympic Committee (founded in 1989) and the International Olympic Committee.
You Might Also Like
