2024 Paralympics in Paris will feature outdoor opening show for 1st time

The world's best Paralympic athletes, parading down France's most famous boulevard with their prosthetic limbs, mobility chairs and stories of adversity, heading to a grand celebration of their prowess and sports on the Paris square where the French Revolutionaries of 1789 chopped off heads.

Paris organizers on Thursday announced their opening ceremony plans for the Paralympics, an event with 4,400 athletes that will follow the first post-COVID-19 pandemic Olympics in less than two years.

The attention-grabber is the venue itself: In a first, the Paralympic opening show will be freed from a traditional stadium setting and instead be held in the open in the French capital's heart, on the Champs-Elysees boulevard and the city's biggest square, Place de la Concorde.

Set like a gem between the Tuileries Gardens, the Seine River and the majestic Crillon Hotel, the square will be converted into the arena for the new Olympic sport of breakdancing, 3-on-3 basketball, BMX cycling and skateboarding, coming back to the program after its Olympic debut at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021.

Only 17 days after the July 26-Aug. 11 Paris Olympics, the Place de la Concorde will then take centre stage for the unprecedented opening ceremony of the Aug. 28-Sept. 8 Paralympics.

28/08/2024 – From the lower end of the Champs-Elysées to Concorde<br><br>The most beautiful avenue in the world,<br>The most beautiful square in Paris,<br>For the Paralympics Opening Ceremony!<br><br>Une 1ère en France, une 1ère pour les athlètes<br>Ouvrons grand les Jeux Paralympiques de <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Paris2024?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Paris2024</a> <a href="https://t.co/gxLWO5nf69">pic.twitter.com/gxLWO5nf69</a>

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