PARIS (AP) — The Paralympics open Wednesday with 4,400 athletes, all permanently injured or disabled, competing for 549 medals in 22 sports over 11 days in Paris.
The French capital, which has just hosted the Olympic Games, is once again the backdrop for what promises to be another spectacle.
The historic Place de la Concorde, which hosted skateboarding, breaking and 3×3 basketball during the Olympic Games, will host the opening ceremony.
“We are in the heart of the city,” International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Equestrian competitions are back at the Palace of Versailles. The Grand Palais is switching from fencing to wheelchair fencing. The archery venue will host Paralympic archery.
The venue next to the Eiffel Tower that hosted beach volleyball during the Olympic Games will now host football for the blind.
Of the 22 Paralympic sports, only two do not have an Olympic equivalent: goalball and boccia.
Compared to the previous edition of the Tokyo Paralympic Games, 10 medal events have been added to provide more opportunities for women and those with high support needs.
Around 2 million tickets have been sold out of 2.5 million for the various events, which would be the second highest total number of spectators for a Paralympic Games, behind the London 2012 Paralympics.
The Paralympic flame was lit in Stoke Mandeville on Saturday and will make its way via a relay under the English Channel to towns across France before lighting the cauldron during the opening ceremony on Wednesday.
Paralympic athletes will be in the spotlight starting Thursday, on the first day of competition.
Among the athletes with titles to defend are Paralympic shooter Avani Lekhara, the first Indian woman to win multiple medals at a single edition of the Paralympic Games, in the 10m air rifle SH1 category in Tokyo.
American Oksana Masters won a road race and a time trial at the Tokyo Paralympics and will be looking to add to her total of seven golds and 17 medals overall in both summer and winter events.
Egyptian weightlifter Sherif Osman is going for his fourth gold medal, and Italian fencer Bebe Vio is vying for her third consecutive wheelchair fencing gold.
Brazil are unbeaten in blind football since the first tournament in Athens in 2004, but France are hoping to pull off an upset.
Visually impaired Italian sprinter Valentina Petrillo will be the first transgender woman to compete at the Paralympics and American swimmer Ali Truwit is competing a year after losing the lower part of her leg in a shark attack while diving.
Czech teenage swimmer David Kratochvil is hoping for a medal after losing his sight due to a serious illness about 10 years ago.
