{"id":123275,"date":"2024-08-28T19:37:20","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T19:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/28\/paris-paralympics-2024-opening-ceremony-live-sumit-antil-bhagyashree-jadhav-lead-india-at-the-parade-of-nations-the-times-of-india\/"},"modified":"2024-08-28T19:37:20","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T19:37:20","slug":"paris-paralympics-2024-opening-ceremony-live-sumit-antil-bhagyashree-jadhav-lead-india-at-the-parade-of-nations-the-times-of-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/28\/paris-paralympics-2024-opening-ceremony-live-sumit-antil-bhagyashree-jadhav-lead-india-at-the-parade-of-nations-the-times-of-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Paralympics 2024 Opening Ceremony Live: Sumit Antil, Bhagyashree Jadhav lead India at the Parade of Nations – The Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Paris<\/div>\n
Paris Paralympics 2024 Opening Ceremony Live: Just weeks after hosting the Olympics, the summer of sports in Paris begins its final chapter Wednesday with the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games. <\/p>\n

More than 4,000 athletes with physical, visual and intellectual impairments will compete in 22 sports over the next 11 days. <\/p>\n

Organizers are promising a spectacular show to open the Games. Once again it’s being held outside the confines of a stadium, but unlike the rain-soaked Olympic opening ceremony, which featured a boat parade on the Seine River, the Paralympic ceremony is happening exclusively on land, with athletes parading down the famous Champs-Elys\u00e9es to the ceremony at the Place de la Concorde. <\/p>\n

Artistic director Thomas Jolly, who led the opening ceremony for the Olympics, said the event will \u201cshowcase the Paralympic athletes and the values that they embody”, and promised \u201cperformances that have never been seen before.” The July 26 opening ceremony highlighted inclusion and diversity. <\/p>\n

Wednesday night’s show \u2014 set to start at 11:30 pm IST \u2014 promises to celebrate the human body, and with far better weather. As the mid-afternoon sun scorched Paris, some fans gathered early to get top spots on the Champs-Elys\u00e9es, which leads down to Concorde. <\/p>\n

Organizers say more than 2 million of the 2.8 million tickets have been sold for the Paris Paralympics. Competition begins Thursday with the first medals handed out in taekwondo, table tennis and track cycling. Athletes are grouped by impairment levels to ensure as level a playing field as possible. Only two sports on the program, goalball and boccia, don’t have an Olympic equivalent. <\/p>\n

International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons said that the big crowds expected in Paris will mean a lot to the athletes, many of whom competed in front of empty stands at the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs our ambition is to be perceived and understood as the most transformational sport event on the planet, by having this atmosphere, it\u2019s important,” he told The Associated Press on the eve of the opening ceremony. <\/p>\n

Accessibility in the parade area has been facilitated with strips of asphalt laid along the Champs-Elys\u00e9es, with it also being placed over the entire Concorde square. <\/p>\n

Parsons added that the ceremony would be the city’s way of welcoming Paralympic athletes with a ‘gigantic hug’. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n