The public was captivated by the Paralympic Games ceremony, which took place on August 28, on the Champs-Elysées and the Place de la Concorde, in front of the spectators.
Apparently, the French have become attached to Phryge, the mascot of the Games, on a taxi covered and filled (outside and inside) with stuffed Phryges mascots, driven by Théo Curin, a disabled swimmer who had all four limbs amputated at the age of six, following meningitis.
The taxi approached the stage, while 140 dancers dressed in black performed a choreography, to the rhythm of the music of Canadian pianist Chilly Gonzales, who performed the song Countdown composed by Victor Le Masne. Her artistic performance opened the sequence entitled “Discorde”, during which Redcar (formerly Christine and the Queen) sang “Non, je ne regrette rien” by Edith Piaf.
The Concorde in the tricolour colours, Christine and the Queens, the parade of delegations, the cauldron lit by five parathletes.
The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games opened in spectacular style with a unique opening ceremony, held for the first time outside a stadium, on the Place de la Concorde.
In five artistic “tableaux”, the ceremony shared a powerful and poetic message about inclusion and the place of people with disabilities in society.
This exceptional spectacle saw Alexander Ekman, artistic director and choreographer of the ceremony – chosen by Thomas Jolly, artistic director of the ceremonies of the Paris 2024 Games – bring together 500 artists, including more than 140 dancers and 16 disabled artists. The Place de la Concorde was transformed into a veritable scenographic showcase, designed by Bruno Delavenère to offer new perspectives on this great historical monument of Paris and to highlight the bodies of the artists, accentuated by the costumes of the young designer Louis Gabriel Nouchi. Victor le Masne provided the music and Thomas Dechandon the lighting, both praising their talents for an unforgettable evening.
After the parade of athletes from 168 delegations, a succession of artists set the stage to set the protocol and artistic sequences to music, under the direction of Victor le Masne, musical director of the Paris 2024 ceremonies, accompanied by the Ensemble Matheus, an academy of young instrumentalists and singers.
Christine and the Queens ended the ceremony with a performance of “Born to be alive”, the disco classic by Patrick Hernandez, organized for the occasion by Victor Le Masne, in an explosion of joy and color.
Twelve French and international Paralympic champions carried the flame to the cauldron, accompanied by a choreography to the rhythm of Ravel’s Boléro.
The cauldron was lit together by the last five torchbearers, all from the French team competing at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games: Alexis Hanquinquant, Paralympic para triathlon champion at Tokyo 2020; Nantenin Keita, Paralympic para-athletics champion, 400m, at Rio 2016 and four-time medalist in the general classification; Charles-Antoine Kouakou, reigning Paralympic champion in the 400m T20 category at Tokyo 2020, in para-athletics; Elodie Lorandi, the most decorated active athlete with seven medals in para-swimming, including a gold in the 400m freestyle at London 2012 and Fabien Lamirault, the most decorated French athlete in the Paris 2024 delegation, quadruple gold medallist in para-table tennis and sixtuple medallist in the general classification.
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