Paris Paralympics declared open amid grand spectacle at Place de la Concorde

Just weeks after hosting the Olympics, Paris inaugurated the 2024 Paralympics on Wednesday with a nearly four-hour-long opening ceremony in the heart of the city.

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. Organizers say more than 2 million of the 2.8 million tickets have been sold for the various Paralympic events.

WATCH | Paralympic cauldron lit as Games get underway:

The opening ceremony was held outside the confines of a stadium, just like when the Olympics opened in the city on July 26. Fighter planes flew overhead, leaving red-white-and blue vapours in the colours 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-Elysees into Place de la Concorde with flag-bearers Patrick Anderson and Katarina Roxon leading the way.

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.

Ukraine's