Paris (AFP) – The Paralympics closed on Sunday with a giant music-fuelled party as chief Paris 2024 organiser Tony Estanguet said the Games and the Olympics had created a “historic summer”. The Paralympic flame and cauldron were extinguished before a concert featuring the best of French electronic music capped off proceedings at a packed Stade de France. More than 4,400 athletes from 168 Paralympic delegations partied despite persistent rain.
Estanguet said the closing ceremony marked the end of six weeks of Olympic and Paralympic fervour in the City of Light. The former Olympic gold medal-winning canoeist said that period would remain “etched in people’s memories.” “This summer, France had a date with history, and the country showed up,” he said. “This summer when people talked to each other, this summer when France was happy,” said Estanguet, referring to how France had been left deeply divided by snap elections just weeks before the Olympics opened.
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The next Paralympics will take place in Los Angeles in 2028. In the official handover, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo passed the Paralympic flag to International Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons, who gave it to Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass. Broadway star Ali Stoker then sang the American national anthem before a film was shown of a band performing on a Californian beach as skateboarders and wheelchair athletes performed tricks.
Despite initial fears about ticket sales, the Paralympics took place in mainly full stadiums, benefiting from the feelgood factor from the highly successful Olympics which ended on August 11. Parsons said the Paris Paralympics had shown that “change starts with sport.” The level of the sport in Paris, the organisation and the gender parity of the competitors had set a “benchmark” for future Paralympics, he said.
The hour-long electronic concert was kicked off by composer Victor Le Masne as LED bracelets worn by the crowd and athletes on the field lit up the stadium. The 24-artist show, with highlights including French synthesizer legend Jean-Michel Jarre, Cassius, Busy P, and Kungs, was rounded off in style by DJ Martin Solveig, who finished his set with 2010 hit “Hello” and then Daft Punk’s “One More Time”.
– China dominance –
China finished top of the medals table in Paris, as they have at every Paralympics since Athens in 2004. They had 94 golds, followed by Britain with 49 and the USA with 36. Ukraine’s athletes overcame the formidable obstacles posed by their country’s war with Russia to finish in seventh place with 22 golds, and host nation France were eighth with 19 golds. In amputee track athletes Hunter Woodhall and 19-year-old Ezra Frech, the USA have found charismatic faces who are sure to play a prominent role in the buildup to LA 2028.
On the final day of competition, Switzerland won both Paralympic wheelchair marathons while the Netherlands secured back-to-back women’s wheelchair basketball titles, denying the USA. Early in the morning, Catherine Debrunner propelled her racing wheelchair through the streets of Paris to win the women’s marathon. The 29-year-old Swiss athlete added to the four gold medals she has already won on the track at these Games, ranging from the 400 metres to the 5,000m.
Marcel Hug, 38, made up for a disappointing Games on the track by dominating the men’s wheelchair marathon, finishing three minutes and 40 seconds ahead of Hua Jin of China. The Netherlands scored a convincing 63-49 win against the USA to retain the women’s wheelchair basketball title they won at Tokyo 2020. The Americans must wait until 2028 on home soil before trying to win a title that their men secured for a third Games in a row on Saturday. The USA women’s last title came at the 2016 Rio Games.
© 2024 AFP
