JO PARIS 2024 – Paris has woken up with another jewel. Two months to the day before the opening ceremony, the Paralympic Games will see their emblem adorn the façade of the Arc de Triomphe starting this Friday, June 28. This is a first for the Agitos, these three commas in the Olympic colors (red, blue and green), which had never before been displayed at the same time as the famous rings.
The Paralympic Games were born in Stoke Mandeville in England and this is where the flame will be lit
And the structure is as grandiose as the event: the assembly of recycled steel was entirely manufactured in France by Arcelor Mittal, and measures twelve meters wide by nine meters high. This is the end of several weeks of work, which had also been carried out at night so as not to disrupt traffic in the area, specifies the Paris 2024 organizing committee.
Standing 44 metres above the ground, the Agitos, each weighing 1.5 tonnes, overlook the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, where the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games will be held.
“There is a unity between the Olympic Games and the Paralympics (…) So it makes a lot of sense that the Agitos are there,” said Tony Estanguet, head of Paris 2024, present at the Arc de Triomphe this Friday morning. “On August 28, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées will become the Avenue of the Paralympic Games,” he rejoiced.
A call to take your tickets
The Agitos (“I move” in Latin), illuminated during the night, join their counterparts the rings, installed on the Eiffel Tower. “This is perhaps the first time that we have had such a beautiful presentation of the Agitos, this symbol of Paralympism and the values that go with it”declared Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, during a press briefing this Friday at the foot of the monument.
A strong initiative to remind the world that the great celebration of sport does not end on August 11 with the closing of the Olympic Games, but on the contrary continues until September 8. Because if ” the milestone of one million tickets sold ” was crossed this week, Tony Estanguet did not fail to point out that there are still many places to sell. More than half of the tickets are still unsold, with a total of 2.8 million tickets put on sale for the Paralympic Games.
With this gesture, the Paris 2024 organization hopes to encourage all sports fans to take their places, in particular with tickets from 15 euros which are intended to be accessible to all. The giant Agitos thus echo the campaign launched last May 100 days before the event, around the slogan ” I don’t miss anything except you ».
Also see on Le HuffPost :
Paris 2024 Paralympic Games: 100 days before the opening ceremony, here’s what we know
Paris 2024 Paralympic Games: Yannick Noah captain of the French men’s wheelchair tennis team
