The Paralympics concluded on Sunday with a huge, music-fueled ceremony, with Paris 2024 chief organiser, Tony Estanget, saying the Games and Olympics had created a “historic summer”.
The Paralympic torch and cauldron were extinguished before the conclusion of a concert featuring the best French electronic music in a packed Stade de France. More than 4,400 athletes from 168 Paralympic delegations participated despite persistent rain.
Estanguet said the closing ceremony marked the end of six weeks of Olympic and Paralympic excitement in the City of Light. The former Olympic gold medalist canoeist said that period will remain “engraved in people’s memories.”
He said: “This summer, France had a date with history, and the country appeared.” “This is the summer when people talked to each other, this is the summer when France was happy,” Estangues said, referring to the deep division left in France by the early elections just weeks before the opening of the Olympic Games.
The next Paralympic Games will be held in Los Angeles in 2028. In the official handover, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo handed the Paralympic flag to International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons, who handed it to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
Broadway star Ali Stoker then sang the US national anthem before a film screening of a band performing on a California beach where skateboarders and wheelchair athletes performed tricks.
Despite initial concerns about ticket sales, the Paralympics were held to mainly full stadiums, capitalizing on the feel-good factor from the highly successful Olympics that ended on August 11. Parsons said the Paris Paralympics showed that “change starts with sport”.
He said the level of sport in Paris, the organization and gender equality among competitors had set a “benchmark” for future Paralympics. The hour-long electronic concert was kicked off by composer Victor Le Masne, as LED bracelets worn by spectators and athletes on the field illuminated the stadium.
The 24-artist show with headliners including French mixtape legend Jean-Michel Jarre, Cassius, Busy P and the Kungs was wrapped up in style by DJ Martin Solveig, who closed his set with 2010’s “Hello” and then Daft Punk’s “One More Time.” “.
China’s dominance
China topped the medal table in Paris, as it has done in every Paralympic Games since Athens in 2004. It won 94 gold medals, followed by Britain with 49 and the United States with 36.
Ukrainian athletes overcame the enormous obstacles imposed by their country’s war with Russia to occupy seventh place with 22 gold medals, while France, the host country, ranked eighth with 19 gold medals.
In 19-year-old amputee athletes Hunter Woodhull and Ezra Frisch, the USA has found attractive faces who are sure to play a prominent role in the build-up to LA2028. On the final day of competition, Switzerland won the Paralympic wheelchair marathon, while the Netherlands took the women’s wheelchair basketball titles, denying the United States the win.
Early in the morning, Catherine DeBronner pushed her racing wheelchair through the streets of Paris to win the women’s marathon. The 29-year-old Swiss athlete added to the four gold medals she has already won on the track at these Games, which range from 400 meters to 5,000 metres.
Marcel Hauge, 38, made up for his disappointing results on the track by dominating the men’s wheelchair marathon, finishing three minutes and 40 seconds ahead of China’s Hua Jin. The Netherlands convincingly beat the United States 63-49 to retain the women’s wheelchair basketball title they won at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
The Americans must wait until 2028 on home soil before trying to win the title, which their men secured for the third time in a row on Saturday. The United States’ last women’s title came at the 2016 Rio Olympics.