“Parisians remembered what an extraordinary place their city is”

At the top of her list of highlights from the Paris Paralympic Games, the sports journalist for the New York Times, The AthleticCharlotte Harpur, placed the blind football final between France and Argentina, Saturday September 7, won by the Blues on penalties. The players, visually impaired, had to be able to hear their teammates’ instructions. Consequently, the stands remained silent and “you could have heard a pin drop to the ground,” wrote the reporter; but when Argentina missed its shot, giving victory to France, “The crowd erupted, the stands shook.” For her, “This moment summed up what it meant for the French to host the Games”.

Like their counterparts, many journalists from the foreign press are expressing a certain wonder at the end of the Parisian Olympic sequence, which began on July 26 and closed on Sunday with the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games. For the sport, for the atmosphere, and for what these two spectacular competitions have done to the French capital for the duration of a summer.

Thus, the Belgian newspaper The evening takes stock of the Paralympic Games “more than positive”. The 4,400 athletes delivered “magnificent moments of grace and emotion”, and the newspaper also welcomes the presence “enthusiastic and caring volunteers” as well as “perfectly secure and generally very accessible sites”. In terms of atmosphere, notes the British newspaper The Independent, “Many competitions took place in front of packed stands and in atmospheres rarely experienced in parasport”.

“A goodbye that will be historic”

Still across the Channel, the Guardian delivers an enthusiastic account of the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games, “a goodbye that will be historic” by having brought together the cream of French electronic music, including the “Godfather of synthesizers” Jean-Michel Jarre, who delivered a performance “with riotous overtones”, while the “magic of the French touch” a “culminated” when Martin Solveig covered Daft Punk’s hit, One more time.

In political and sporting matters, the closing of the Paralympic Games has led to writing The Conversation that he is “time to take account of the exploits” athletes with disabilities. In many cases, their performances “equal or exceed those of their Olympic counterparts”note two researchers invited by the media. And to recall the case of the American Paralympic swimmer Trischa Zorn, holder of 55 medals (including 41 gold), to compare with the 28 medals (including 23 gold) of her compatriot Michael Phelps.

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