Paris 2024: All you need to know for Paralympic Games
- Published
The medals for the Paralympics feature braille on one side
As the six-month countdown to the Paris 2024 Paralympics begins, we've put together a guide to everything you need to know about the Games.
Paris will be hosting the Paralympics for the first time in 2024 in what will be a sporting spectacular.
About 4,400 athletes from across the world will take part in 22 sports cheered on by crowds again after the rescheduled Tokyo Games in 2021 was held behind closed doors.
As well as the performances, the competitors will also be aiming to help change attitudes and lead the way in driving social change in France and further afield.
When are the Paralympics?
The Paralympic Games will begin on Wednesday, 28 August with the opening ceremony.
For the first time, it will be held outside a stadium and during the ceremony athletes will parade by some of the French capital's most iconic landmarks, located along the route between the Champs-Elysees and the Place de la Concorde.
Organisers have placed inclusion at the heart of the Games and spectators will be able to watch along the route before the official parade and formalities take place in front of ticket-holders at the Place de la Concorde.
A total of 23 gold medals will be decided on the opening day of competition, Thursday, 29 August.
The final day of the Games will be Sunday, 8 September and, as well as the closing ceremony, will feature medal events in wheelchair basketball, powerlifting, Para-canoe and the Para-marathon events in the athletics.
Which venues are being used for the Paralympics?
Many of the venues being utilised at the Olympics will also stage Paralympic events.
Wheelchair tennis will be hosted at Roland Garros, the picturesque Chateau de Versailles garden will be the venue for the Para-equestrian events while the Stade de France will host the Para-athletics programme.
The Grand Palais, normally a venue for art and sport events, will host wheelchair fencing and Para-taekwondo while the blind football competition will be in a specially built stadium at the foot of the iconic Eiffel Tower.
And the Para-triathletes will be competing through the centre of Paris with the swim element due to take place in the River Seine.
How can I watch the Paralympics?
Channel 4 will show the Games in the United Kingdom. There will also be extensive coverage on BBC Radio 5 Live and the BBC Sport website.
What are the new sports at the Paris Paralympics?
Unlike the past two editions of the Games where Para-triathlon and Para-canoe (Rio) and Para-taekwondo and Para-badminton (Tokyo) made their debuts, there are no new sports included in the Paris programme.
However, the badminton and taekwondo programmes have been expanded and there are also a record number of medal events for women.
How many gold medals will be won at the Paris Games?
549 gold medals will be up for grabs across 22 sports.
Who is competing for ParalympicsGB and how many medals could they win?
ParalympicsGB will compete in 19 sports in Paris having failed to qualify in blind football, goalball and sitting volleyball. No-one has yet been officially named on the GB team but it is expected that it will feature about 220 athletes.
In Tokyo, Great Britain finished second in the medal table behind China with 124 medals, including 41 golds.
Will there be athletes from Russia and Belarus taking part at the Paris Paralympics?
Athletes from Russia and Belarus will be allowed to compete at the Games as neutrals.
Both nations had been suspended from Paralympic competition since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. At the following month's Winter Paralympics in Beijing, competitors from both countries were not allowed to take part as neutrals after the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) was criticised for originally saying they could.
In September 2023, the IPC voted to lift the full ban and partially suspend the national Paralympic committees of Russia and Belarus. It means competitors from both nations can take part in Paris as neutrals. The decision was criticised by a number of international federations, including ParalympicsGB.
Previously, Russian athletes had been barred from the 2016 Rio Paralympics over historic doping allegations before athletes were able to compete under a neutral flag and using the initials of the Russian Paralympic Committee at both the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang and at Tokyo 2020.