PARIS (AP) — Just weeks after hosting the Olympics, Paris began the final chapter of its summer of sports Wednesday with the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games.
French President Emmanuel Macron officially declared the Games open in a ceremony held outside the confines of a stadium, just like when the Olympics opened in the city on July 26.
Against the backdrop of a setting sun, thousands of athletes paraded down the famed Champs-Elysées avenue to Place de la Concorde in central Paris.
About 50,000 people watched the ceremony in stands built around the iconic square, which is the biggest in Paris and is visible from afar because of its ancient Egyptian Obelisk. Accessibility for athletes in wheelchairs was facilitated with strips of asphalt laid along the avenue and placed over the square.
More than 4,000 athletes with physical, visual and intellectual impairments will compete in 22 sports from Thursday until Sept. 8.
Under the gaze of Macron, International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons, fighter planes flew overhead, leaving red-white-and blue vapors in the colors of the French national flag, before the delegations entered the square in alphabetical order.
Some delegations were huge — more than 250 athletes from Brazil — and some were tiny — less than a handful from Barbados and just three from Myanmar.
A Canadian contingent of 94 athletes, coaches and staff marched from the Champs-Élysées into Place de la Concorde with flag-bearers Patrick Anderson and Katarina Roxon leading the way.
Anderson of Fergus, Ont., is a six-time Paralympian in men's wheelchair basketball and Roxon of Kippens, N.L. will be the first Canadian woman to compete in five Paralympics in swimming.
Canadian Gov. Gen. Mary Simon was among the heads of state attending the opening ceremonies.
Canada's team in Paris numbers 126 athletes competing in 18 sports.
Canadians earned 21 medals, including five gold, in Tokyo's Paralympics postponed from 2020 to 2021 and held with no spectators because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although Wednesday night’s show started at 8 p.m. local time, fans had gathered hours earlier under a scorching sun to get top spots along the way. As performers entertained the crowd on stage, volunteers danced alongside Paralympians as they waved their national flags and the sky gave off a postcard-perfect orange glow.
Ukraine's delegation got a loud cheer and some of the crowd stood to applaud them.
The French delegation arrived last and to roars from the crowd, which then sang along to popular French songs, including “Que Je T'aime” by late rocker Johnny Hallyday.
Lucky Love, a French singer who lost his left arm at birth, was joined by performers in wheelchairs when he sang on stage. Then, as the national anthem played, the Obelisk lit up in the colors of the French flag.
Organizers had promised another spectacular show to open the Games. Once again it was held outside of a stadium, but unlike the rain-soaked Olympic opening ceremony on July 26, which featured a boat parade on the Seine River, the Paralympic ceremony was exclusively on land.
Organizers say more than 2 million of the 2.8 million tickets have been sold for the various Paralympic events.
Tony Estanguet, the president of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, called Paralympians “immense champions who we have the honor of being with tonight.”
The first medals handed out on Thursday will be in taekwondo, table tennis, swimming and track cycling. Athletes are grouped by impairment levels to ensure as level a playing field as possible. Only two sports, goalball and boccia, don't have an Olympic equivalent.
Parsons said that the big crowds expected in Paris will mean a lot to the athletes, many of whom competed in front of empty stands at the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Parsons hoped the Paralympics would serve "as a powerful force for good” amid ongoing global tensions.
The closing ceremony will be held at Stade de France, the national stadium.
-- With files from The Canadian Press
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AP Paralympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paralympic-games
Jerome Pugmire, The Associated Press