After a two-week break, Paris once again readies itself to host the best athletes in the world with the 2024 Paralympic Games set to get underway on Wednesday. The quadrennial event will take place from August 28 to September 8.
A total of 18 of the 35 venues used for the Olympics will be used for the Paralympics with more than 4,400 athletes set to compete in 549 events across 22 sports.
The term Paralympics indicates an event taking place in parallel with the Olympics.
The idea of an athletic event for people with disabilities came up after the second World War in England. Sir Ludwigg Guttmann, a neurologist who fled to England from Nazi Germany before the war is credited with the founding of organised sports for people with physical disablities.
While working as a neurologist at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Guttmann organised the Stoke Mandeville Games for war veterans at the hospital to coincide with the 1948 London Olympics.
The first Paralympics were held in Rome 1960. In 2001, the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee signed an agreement that ensured that cities who bid to host the Olympic Games would also be mandated to hold the Paralympic Games.
The Games will open with a ceremony at the Place de la Concorde, the square in the centre of Paris where skateboarding and other urban sports took place during the Olympics.
Just like the Olympics ceremony on the River Seine, the ceremony on Wednesday takes place away from the main stadium for the first time at a Paralympics.
The Paralympic flame was lit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England, the birthplace of the Paralympic Games, and brought to France through the Channel Tunnel.
Theatre director Thomas Jolly, who also oversaw the Olympics opening ceremony, said there was a deep symbolism in putting the Paralympics ceremony in the centre of the French capital – a city whose Metro system, in particular, is completely unadapted to the needs of wheelchair users.
The Paris Paralympics will feature 22 sports with 20 of them being common with the Olympic Games. The Paralympics feature two sports which are unique only for para athletes — goalball and boccia.
The Paralympic movement covers 10 impairment types that fall broadly into three categories: physical impairments, vision impairment and intellectual impairment.
Some sports are open to athletes in all categories, while others are reserved for specific impairments.
Within each category, athletes are assessed to see whether they meet a minimum impairment level, to ensure a fair playing field – although there have been controversies over some placements in recent years.
Many visually impaired athletes use assistants to compete. In track events, athletes use guide runners who are linked to the athlete via a strap. This helps the athlete when running along the curve of the track. The guide runners cannot pull the athlete along and must cross the finish line behind the athlete.
In cycling events, visually impaired athletes pair up with a guide, also known as a pilot, who rides in front on a tandem bike.
Guide runners and pilots are also common in the triathlon. Swimming features “tappers”, who tap the athlete’s head or body as they approach turns or the finish to keep them safe.
One of the most unique features of para athletics, which was introduced at Tokyo 2020 was the 4x100m universal relay event. Like the mixed relay, the universal relay features two men and two women with each leg being run by an athlete with a different impairment.
The relay is started by a visually impaired athlete, followed by an amputee sprinter. The third leg is run by an athlete with cerebral palsy while a wheelchair athlete anchors the race.
India won its first individual gold medal in Olympic or Paralympic Games back in 1972 when Murlikant Petkar won gold in the men’s 50m freestyle event. In 1984, Joginder Singh Bedi became the first and only Indian to win three medals in a single Olympic or Paralympic event when he won two silver and one bronze medals in track and field.
After 20 years without a medal in the Paralympic Games, Devendra Jhajharia, the current Paralympic Committee of India president, won gold in javelin throw in Athens while Rajinder Rahelu won India’s first medal in powerlifting.
Jhajharia joined Bedi in the three-medal club after defending his title in Rio 2016 before winning silver at Tokyo 2020.
Before Tokyo 2020, India had won 12 medals at the Paralympic Games. At Tokyo 2020, India more than doubled its tally by winning 19 medals including five gold, eight silver and six bronze medals.
Tokyo 2020 saw India win its first Paralympic medals in archery, badminton, shooting and table tennis. A host of medallists from Tokyo 2020 will be in action in Paris 2024.
India’s male flag bearer Sumit Antil (shot putter Bhagyashree Jadhav is India’s female flag bearer) is favourite to defend his javelin throw title. In Tokyo, Antil thrice set the world record in the final on the way to winning gold. He became the first F64 javelin thrower to register a throw past the 70m mark and holds the world record of 73.29m which he set at the Hangzhou Para Asian Games last year.
Mariyappan Thangavelu will be aiming to join Bedi and Jhajharia in winning three Paralympic medals when he takes part in the men’s T63 high jump event – he had won gold in Rio 2016 followed by silver in Tokyo.
Rifle shooter Avani Lekhara, who won a gold and bronze in Tokyo, could become the first Indian to win more than three Paralympic medals should she medal in each of the three events she is competing in Paris.
Paddler Bhavina Patel and compound archer Sheetal Devi are also among the favourites to finish on the podium in Paris as are the likes of recurve archer Harvinder Singh, pistol shooter Manish Narwal, shuttlers Krishna Nagar and Manoj Sarkar and discus thrower Yogesh Kathuniya among others.
In Paris, 84 Indian athletes will compete in 12 sports. Unlike at the Olympics, India are expected to win a host of medals from track and field events – 15 of the 17 Indians who won medals at the 2024 World Championships are competing in Paris.
Also expect medals from archery, badminton, table tennis and shooting.
Every Games creates new stars and this edition will be no exception. So, look to American above-the-knee amputee sprinter/high jumper Ezra Frech, who at 19, has already attracted a burst of publicity about his journey to Paris.
There are some familiar names returning too – British amputee sprinter Jonnie Peacock was one of the high-profile athletes of London 2012 and dusted off his running blade last year to make a comeback in his bid to win a medal at a fourth consecutive Paralympics.
Away from the track, Iranian sitting volleyball legend Morteza Mehrzad, who stands 8ft 1in (2.46m) tall, will attempt to take gold again. Swimmer Gabriel dos Santos Araujo is aiming to defend his 50m backstroke and 200m freestyle S2 while also upgrading the silver he won in 100m backstroke into gold.
The Netherlands’ Diede de Groot is the favourite to defend her women’s singles wheelchair tennis gold along with the doubles title she won with Aniek van Koot. De Groot is widely regarded as the greatest wheelchair tennis player of all time.
The 36-time Grand Slam winner had a three-year 145-match winning streak from February 2021 to May 2024. In 2021, she achieved the first Super Slam in the sport when she won all four Grand Slam titles, the Paralympic Gold and the Wheelchair Tennis Masters title. In 2022 and 2023, she became the first tennis player in any discipline to defend all four Grand Slam titles.
Paralympic powerhouse China will send a strong squad – the Chinese dominated the medals table at the Covid-delayed Games in Tokyo three years ago, winning 96 golds. Britain were second with 41 golds.
Riding the wave of its Olympic team’s success, host nation France will be aiming for a substantial upgrade on the 11 golds it won in 2021.
Ukraine, traditionally one of the top medal-winning nations at the Paralympics, will send a team of 140 athletes spread over 17 sports despite the challenges they face in preparing as the war against Russian forces rages.
The 96 athletes from Russia and Belarus will compete under a neutral banner but are barred from the opening and closing ceremonies.
The Russian and Belarusian federations were both suspended following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 but their competitors are allowed to compete as neutrals providing they have not shown any support for the war.
After a short break, Paris will once again be buzzing with the best athletes in the world, all eager to make a mark in sports biggest stage.
(With AFP Inputs)
The 2024 Paris Paralympics will be broadcast on Sports18 and live streamed on Jio Cinema.