When do the 2024 Paris Paralympics start? Date, time, opening ceremony and how to watch
After a stunning Olympics in Paris, there is still more action to come with the Paralympics starting imminently, giving Team GB plenty more chances to win medals.
Team GB has a great record in the Paralympics, finishing second in the medal table at Tokyo 2020 – picking up 41 golds, 38 silvers, and 45 bronze medals.
Here is what you can expect in 2024.
Hannah Cockroft will be hoping for another gold in para-athletics
Bryn Lennon / Getty Images
When do the Paralympics start?
The action will then get underway on Thursday (August 29), with medals to be awarded right from the off.
Action will take place over 10 days until the closing ceremony on Sunday, September 8.
Unlike at the Olympics, there will be athletics and swimming throughout the whole games.
Can I watch the Paralympics?
Yes, the live action can be watched on Channel 4, which has promised more than 1,300 hours of coverage.
Unlike at the Olympics, where the BBC had only limited broadcasting, Channel 4 will be showing every event with up to 18 streams accessible online.
There will also be a highlights show.
Goalball at the Paralympics
Lisi Niesner / Reuters
Which sports are played at the Paralympics?
Twenty-two sports will feature at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, in 23 disciplines and a total of 549 events distributed across 269 sessions (morning, afternoon and evening).
Among the events are some that are included in the Olympics and others that are unique to the Paralympics, such as goalball, boccia and sitting volleyball.
Each sport has subcategories, giving athletes the chance to compete on equal terms with those with similar impairments. The sports are as follows.
- Para-archery
- Para-athletics
- Para-badminton
- Blind football
- Boccia
- Para-canoe
- Para-cycling
- Para-equestrian
- Goalball
- Para-judo
- Para-powerlifting
- Para-rowing
- Shooting para-sport
- Sitting volleyball
- Para-swimming
- Para-table-tennis
- Para-taekwondo
- Para-triathlon
- Wheelchair basketball
- Wheelchair fencing
- Wheelchair rugby
- Wheelchair tennis
Team GB’s David Smith takes part in boccia
Scott Heavey / Getty Images
What do we know about the opening ceremony?
Around 4,400 para-athletes will take to the Avenue des Champs-Elysées for a “people’s parade” choreographed by Sweden’s Alexander Ekman.
Like the Olympics, the Paralympics’ opening ceremony will not be held in a stadium but will instead take place outside at the Place de la Concorde, which was transformed into an “urban park” for the Olympic Games.
Thomas Jolly, the artistic director for the ceremony said: “From the Champs-Elysées to Place de la Concorde, I look forward to creating this spectacle that will transform the heart of Paris, with performances that have never been seen before.”
The flame, which was ignited on Saturday (August 24) in Stoke Mandeville, the birthplace of the Paralympic Games, arrived in France through the Channel Tunnel on Sunday, carried by wheelchair fencing medalist Emmanuelle Assmann.
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