2024 Paralympic Games closing ceremony: 'This summer will be etched in our hearts!' Paris ended a historic Olympic streak

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The show that ended the Paralympic sequence, this Sunday evening, September 8, at the Stade de France, also marked the end of the great French adventure under the rings. Years of work rewarded by unanimous reviews.

Paris wrapped up a “historic” Olympic summer this Sunday, September 8, with an electro-sound final party at the Stade de France to close the Paralympic Games. In one breath, boccia gold medalist Aurélie Aubert, surrounded by several French athletes who have made their mark at the Games, extinguished the Paralympic flame at the Stade de France, marking the end of an unprecedented season in France.

A few kilometers away, the now famous pool, this illuminated balloon installed in the Tuileries garden in the heart of the French capital, also went dark. “France had an appointment with History and responded,” said Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 organizing committee, in his closing speech. “And if these emotions were fleeting, the memory of this historic summer will remain engraved in us.”

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The Olympic Games, marked among other things by an unprecedented ceremony in the city, then the Paralympic Games, the first ever held on French soil, were generally a success this summer “where people talked to each other, this summer when France was happy” , continued Estanguet. Historic Parisian sites, from the Grand Palais to the ephemeral stadium at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, passing through the Esplanade des Invalides or the Place de la Concorde, often had as much impact as the sporting moments for which they sold out around 12.1 million tickets, JO and Paras combined.

The previous record was 11 million, organizers claimed. In Paris, 2.5 million attended the Paralympic Games, slightly fewer than in London in 2012.

dance floor

The Paralympic flag was passed to Los Angeles, which will host the next Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028, in the presence of the mayors of the two metropolises, French Anne Hidalgo and Californian Karen Bass. The Stade de France was then transformed into a giant dance floor for an hour of musical performance around the theme 'Paris is a party', launched by Jean-Michel Jarre, the godfather of French electro.

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Twenty-three other big names in electro music followed, including Kungs and Kavinsky, all embodying the internationally recognized electro 'French Touch', in a Stade de France where around 4,400 para-athletes and numerous volunteers were present for the last time . Among them, the Chinese delegation that finished at the top of this edition, for the sixth consecutive time, with 94 titles (220 medals), ahead of Great Britain (49 gold) and the United States (36 gold).

On the French side, Aurélie Aubert and para-shooting champion Tanguy De La Forest were the porters of this meeting: the Blues fulfilled their goal of entering the top 8 with 19 gold medals (75 medals in total), a goal displayed before the competition . – Spectacular – Twelve years after the London edition, founded on its popular and media success, “Paris-2024 has set a benchmark for all future Paralympic Games”, said Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee, on Sunday evening. hailing his speech as “the most spectacular Paralympic Games of all time”.

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In terms of media coverage, the event was watched by 165 television channels, and 168 delegates participated in the competition, again unheard of. It now remains to be seen whether these Paris Games will leave room for a solid legacy of consideration of the rights of persons with disabilities.

“Not a Charmed Bracket”

For Michael Jeremiasz, head of mission for the Blues at the Paralympic Games, “we can't go back” at this point. The Paralympics, he hopes, “will help to trivialize the way we see others, that the state and the government feel obliged to do the work and to accelerate this transformation, that all the projects of access to this citizenship are implemented”, referring- especially to access to jobs. “We have to make sure this is not a charmed bracket,” warns Jeremiasz, because “it would be worse than if we didn't hold the Games.”

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The president of the Île-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, spoke again on Sunday about the “metro for all” project, “the biggest transport challenge in the Region in the coming decades”, while the very old Parisian network is criticized for lack of accessibility. A vast and expensive project, the feasibility of which has yet to be discussed. “We all have a collective responsibility to build on the momentum of the Paralympic Games to make this world more inclusive,” continued Andrew Parsons. “We need to enable people with disabilities to excel off the playing field.”

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