After the Olympic flag, place for the Paralympic flag and the French tour

The Paralympic flag arrived in the capital and was hoisted in front of the City Hall in the presence of many medal-winning athletes at the Tokyo Games.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo received the Paralympic flag from the President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Andrew Parsons during the closing ceremony of the Games on Sunday in Tokyo.

A few hours earlier, the French delegation led by Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris, who received the flag during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Games, and Marie-Amélie Le Fur, President of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee (CPSF) , was back from Japan. They were greeted on the Roissy tarmac by Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024.

The Olympic and Paralympic symbols are now united in the host city of the next Games. In 2024, Paris will host the Olympic Games (July 26 to August 15) and Paralympics (August 28 to September 8). Nearly 350,000 disabled visitors will be welcomed in Paris during the Games. These will make it possible to speed up the accessibility of the capital and to develop parasportive practice.

France finished its Tokyo Games in 14th place in the standings, with 54 medals: eleven in gold, fifteen in silver, twenty-eight in bronze. The record easily surpasses that of Rio (28), and exceeds the goal of 35 medals, set before the competition.
Now, faces are on Paris 2024, which is preparing to take up the torch during the closing ceremony this Sunday. The home goal will be 60 medals, the French Paralympic and Sports Committee (CPSF) projected on Sunday.

Alexandre Léauté performed a historic Paralympiad in Tokyo, and was honored to be the flag bearer of the French delegation during the closing ceremony for his first Paralympic Games in Japan. Gave France its first gold medal in the C2 individual pursuit. He completed his collection with silver in the C1-C3 kilometer, before winning two bronze medals, in the C2 time trial and then in the C1-C3 road race. At 20, the paracyclist Alexandre Léauté completed a historic Paralympiad in Tokyo by winning 4 medals, a gold medal, a silver medal, two bronze medals.

The Blues left Tokyo with 54 medals: eleven in gold, fifteen in silver, and twenty-eight in bronze. This assessment places France 14th among the nations of this Paralympiad.

Despite events mostly behind closed doors and a still complex health situation, Tokyo became the first city to host the Paralympic Games for the second time, after the 1964 edition. At the time, only 378 athletes had competed, against 4 400 today.

From 40 athletes in 1960 to 138 in 2021

138 athletes at the start, to defend the colors of the France team, at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, set a goal and took home 35 medals out of the 19 disciplines.

Athletics
Men: Timothée Adolphe, Arnaud Assoumani, Valentin Bertrand, Nicolas Brignone, Julien Casoli, Thierry Cibone, Pierre Fairbank, Gaël Geffroy, Redouane Hennouni-Bouzidi, Dimitri Jozwicki, Charles-Antoine Kouakou, Trésor Makunda, Ronan Pallier, Dimitri Pavadé, Louis Radius .
Women: Gloria Agblemagnon, Mandy François-Elie, Manon Genest, Nantenin Keita, Angelina Lanza, Marie-Amélie Le Fur, Typhaine Solde.
Rowing
Men: Antoine Jesel, Christophe Lavigne, Robin Le Barreau, Rémy Taranto.
Women: Nathalie Benoit, Perle Bouge, Margot Boulet, Erika Sauzeau.
Badminton
Men: Thomas Jakobs, Meril Loquette, Lucas Mazur, David Toupe.
Women: Lenaig Morin, Faustine Noel.
Boccia
Men: Rodrigue Brenek, Samir Van Der Beken.
Women: Sonia Heckel.
Canoe
Men: Rémy Boulle, Eddie Potdevin.
Women: Nélia Barbosa.
Cycling
Men: Raphaël Beaugillet (pilot: François Pervis), Dorian Foulon, Florian Jouanny, Kevin Le Cunff, Alexandre Leaute, Alexandre Lloveras (pilot: Corentin Ermenault), Riadh Tarsim, Loïc Vergnaud.
Women: Katell Alençon, Elise Marc, Marie Patouillet.
Horse riding
Men: Vladimir Vinchon.
Women: Céline Gerny, Anne-Frédérique Royon, Chiara Zenati.
Fencing
Men: Romain Noble, Yohan Peter, Damien Tokatlian, Maxime Valet.
Soccer
Men: Hakim Arezki, Alessandro Bartolomucci (goalkeeper), Tidiane Diakite, Mickaël Miguez, Babacar Niang, Gaël Rivière, Jérémy Sauffisseau (goalkeeper), Frédéric Villeroux, Yvan Wouandji, Khalifa Youme.
Weightlifting
Men: Axel Bourlon.
Women: Souhad Ghazouani.
Judo
Men: Hélios Latchoumanya, Nathan Petit.
Women: Sandrine Martinet.
Swimming
Men: Laurent Chardard, Ugo Didier, Nathan Maillet, Florent Marais, Alex Portal, David Smetanine.
Women: Emeline Pierre, Anaëlle Roulet, Claire Supiot.
Rugby
Men: Adrien Chalmin, Christophe Corompt, Jordan Ducret, Jonathan Hiverna, Rodolphe Jarlan, Corentin Le Guen, Brice Maurel, Cédric Nankin, Christophe Salegui, Mathieu Thiriet, Nicolas Valentim, Sébastien Verdin.
Taekwondo
Men: Bopha Kong.
Women: Laura Schiel.
Tennis
Men: Frédéric Cattaneo, Stéphane Houdet, Gaëtan Menguy, Nicolas Peifer.
Women: Charlotte Fairbank, Emmanuelle Morch.
Table tennis
Men: Clément Berthier, Matéo Boheas, Thomas Bouvais, Lucas Créange, Gilles de La Bourdonnaye, Fabien Lamirault, Florian Merrien, Stéphane Molliens, Nicolas Savant-Aira, Maxime Thomas.
Women: Anne Barnéoud, Thu Kamkasomphou, Isabelle Lafaye, Léa Ferney.
Shoot
Men: David Auclair, Tanguy De La Forest, Vincent Fagnon, Cédric Fèvre-Chevalier, Kévin Liot, Alain Quittet, Didier Richard, Christophe Tanche.
Archery
Men: Daniel Lelou, Eric Pereira, Guillaume Toucoullet.
Women: Julie Chupin.
Triathlon
Men: Ahmed Andaloussi, Yannick Bourseaux, Alexis Hanquinquant, Alexandre Paviza, Antoine Perel (guide: Olivier Lyoen), Thibaut Rigaudeau (guide: Cyril Viennot).
Women: Annouck Curzillat (guide: Céline Bousrez), Mona Francis, Gwladys Lemoussu, Cécile Saboureau.

The return from Tokyo, of the French delegation and Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, took the direction of the Town Hall on Monday to hoist the Paralympic flag next to that of the Olympic Games. From September 8, a national tour of the Olympic and Paralympic flags will be organized.

But how was Paralympic sport born?

After the Second World War, the Director Ludwig Guttman, neurosurgeon, had the idea to set up sports games for them, but also to force them to have a physical activity, to the wounded in combat and become paraplegic, were in rehabilitation at Stoke-Mandeville hospital, near London.

As the Olympic Games were held in London in 1948, he decided to organize in his center, on the same day, at the same time as the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the first sports meeting for disabled people in wheelchairs: the profile of the Paralympic Games was taking shape.

It took 12 years to attend the first Paralympic Games in 1960 and the Games in Rome. Officially they were called the “9th Annual International Stoke Mandeville Games”.
In fact, only spinal cord injuries were concerned at the time and the term « Paralympic Games » was not adopted until 1984 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

With the London 2012 Games, the Paralympic and Olympic Games will have been held nine times in the same city (Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964, Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012), three times in the same country but not the same city (FRG 1972, Canada 1976, USA 1984) and twice in different countries (Tel Aviv 1968 and Arnhem 1980).

Of the 378 athletes in Rome in 1960, to the 4,200 present at the London Games and 4,400 at the Tokyo Games, the « Paralympics » have today become one of the most important events in the world, surpassing the Commonwealth Games, the Olympic Games. Winter Olympics and the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

The Games took place from September 19 to 24, under the aegis of the I.N.A.I.L. and the Italian Olympic Committee, just 6 days after the closing of the Olympic Games.
On September 18, the opening ceremony took place at Acqua Acetosa Stadium. Camillo GIARDINA, Italian Minister of Health, declared the Games open, to 378 athletes from 23 countries participated in the Games. The biggest delegation was Italian.

8 sports were on the program and 57 events

Activities chosen for their participation in the rehabilitation process of spinal cord injuries.

• Billiards in its snooker version;
• Fencing: foil and saber;
• Athletics: distance javelin throw, precision javelin throw in a target placed on the ground, shot put, Indian club throw (a kind of wooden stick);
• Men’s wheelchair basketball;
• Swimming: freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke;
• Table tennis;
• Archery and darts;
• The pentathlon: Archery, swimming, javelin throw, shot put, club throw.

France finished its Games in Rome in 6th place in the standings, with 7 medals: 4 in gold and 3 in bronze.

List of medalists:

Athletics:
Mr BARBIER, Gold with the club throw Cat: B;
JARRIGE Bernard, Gold in club throw Cat: Special;

Swimming:
JARRIGE Bernard, Gold in the 25m freestyle junior Cat: 2 incomplete;
Bronze in the 25m junior backstroke Cat: 2-4 incomplete;

Archery:
Mr DELAPIETRA, Bronze in the Columbia round Cat: Open;
Mr TROUVERIE, Gold at the Columbia round Cat: Open;
FIGONI Gérard, Silver at St Nicholas round Cat: open;

Darts:
Mrs BERNABEI and Mr TROUVERIE, Bronze in the mixed Cat: Open event.

Number of athletes in the French delegation was 40.

The French tour of the Olympic and Paralympic flags to start this Wednesday from Seine-Saint-Denis, a department which will host several sites for the Paris Olympics in 2024.

The Paralympic flag arrived from Japan on Monday, while the Olympic flag arrived in Paris on August 9, a symbol of the handover between the Tokyo Games and those in Paris scheduled for July 26 to August 11, 2024. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, had announced in Tokyo that the flags would tour several cities in France. First logical step in Seine-Saint-Denis, the department which will host the athletes’ village, the media village, the Olympic aquatic center but also several events, notably at the Stade de France.

This Wednesday, the flags were presented at 9 am at the town hall of Saint-Denis in the presence of the mayor Mathieu Hanotin, Pierre Rabadan, sports assistant for the city of Paris, Stéphane Troussel, president of the departmental council of 93 and Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024.

They are then presented at 10 a.m. at the Île-des-Vannes recreation center in Saint-Ouen, at 11 a.m. at the Alfred-Sisley college on Île-Saint-Denis in the presence of Allan Morante who participated in the Tokyo Olympic Games on the trampoline event, then at the Georges-Politzer College in La Courneuve in the presence of Bopha Kong who took part in the para taekwondo events. Finally, the flags are unveiled to sports associations at 2 p.m. at the Bayard gymnasium in Livry-Gargan.

The tour will then continue for several days through several cities in France, before returning for several stops in Île-de-France: September 17 in Melun, September 18 in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, October 2 in Rueil-Malmaison and Le Bourget, October 7 in Boulogne-Billancourt and October 16 in Élancourt.

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