Organisers are adding the final touches to what is said to be the largest games ever, while athletes from across the globe prepare to realise their paralympic dreams.
Tomorrow evening’s Opening Ceremony will be another one in the open with around 65 000 spectators are expected to witness this historic moment on the Place de la Concorde and the Champs-Elysées in Paris.
This year’s edition will see 4 500 athletes from 168 delegations taking part in 22 sporting codes which is a record in numbers.
“We have 1983 female athletes, which is a record for us. It ensures we’re at 45 percent for the games. I think that’s a tremendous achievement bearing in mind our first games were in 1960. So, to almost achieve gender parity in such a short time frame is really encouraging. I want to thank our national paralympic committees and our international federations for achieving this figure. So, we have 35 national paralympic committees who have a record number of female athletes at these games, and we have 27 national paralympic committees who have brought more females than men,” says Chief Communications Officer of the International Paralympics Committee (IPC), Craig Spence.
Meanwhile, the Paralympic Torch Relay continued its journey across the length and breadth of France.
It will continue its journey inland towards Paris ahead of the lighting of the cauldron at the Opening Ceremony on Wednesday night. It will stay lit until the Games end on September the 8th.
Team South Africa, consisting of 37 participants, arrived and settled in at the Athletes Village last week.
At the last Paralympics in Tokyo, the South Africans bagged seven medals, four of which were gold.
Two of those gold medals came from Ntando Mahlangu, who is not in Paris this time around because he is recovering from a car crash. While another gold medalist, Anrune Weyers, has retired.
However, the fourth gold medalist, Pieter du Preez, is back in action in the hand-cycling event.
Du Preez claimed top spot in the men’s Road Time Trial in Tokyo and is thrilled to be competing in the post COVID-19 era.
“I must say for Paris 2024 coming up, I am excited because having the public cricket part of the games, I think it will definitely just create that extra special flavour. There is no better place at the games than to race on the track with possibly 50 to 80 000 people. I’m going to put everything in it to be the best I can be,” said Du Preez.
--SABC--
