Paralympic Boccia champion Aurélie Aubert and para-sport shooting champion Tanguy De La Forest will be the French flag bearers at the closing ceremony, this Sunday evening, September 8 at the Stade de France.
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With one last «fête» with electro sounds at the Stade de France, Paris definitively closes its first Paralympic Games this Sunday, December 8, “the most beautiful in history” according to its actors. It is now time for a final celebration. No fewer than 24 DJs from all generations, from Jean-Michel Jarre to Kavinsky, embodying the French Touch, will be gathered at the Stade de France, where around 60,000 spectators are expected from 8:30 p.m. and where some 4,400 para-athletes will parade one last time. Paralympic Boccia champion Aurélie Aubert and para-sport shooting champion Tanguy De La Forest will be the French flag bearers for this event.
The flame cauldron at the Tuileries will be extinguished and then the Seine-Saint-Denis enclosure will be transformed into a giant dancefloor for an hour of musical entertainment, around the theme “Paris is a party”The torch will be passed to Los Angeles, which will host the next Games in 2028.
Twelve years after the founding London Paralympics, in view of their popular and media success, now “The reference Games will be the Paris 2024 Games”declared the president of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee Marie-Amélie Le Fur at a press conference this Sunday. A formula also echoed by the president of the International Paralympic Committee Andrew Parsons. “For all the participants, athletes, staff, foreign observers, these are the greatest Paralympic Games in history”welcomed the head of the French delegation, Michael Jeremiasz.
Nearly 2.6 million tickets sold
The enthusiasm was there, despite the start of the school year being sandwiched between the two weeks of competition. “We have exceeded 2.5 million tickets sold […] but we are not quite at 2.6”said Tony Estanguet, president of the organising committee. London 2012 had done slightly better with 2.7 million tickets sold. In terms of media coverage, 165 television channels followed the event, a record. Also a record for the number of delegations involved, 168.
In terms of sport, France returned to the Top 8 with 75 medals including 19 gold, its best ranking since 2000. China 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).
“What remains for us to do is to endure over time”says Marie-Amélie Le Fur, very satisfied despite sports that have not “didn’t live up to expectations”citing in particular the need to “get back into athletics” which has the most events and where the Blues only brought back five medals, none of which were gold. Marie-Amélie Le Fur also hopes for more “feminize” the French team, which included 82 women out of 237 athletes entered.
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