Leading Canada's delegation are flag bearers Patrick Anderson and Katarina Roxon as they arrive on the Champs-Elysees avenue during the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony.DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP/Getty Images
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Canada's delegation parades at the Place de la Concorde during the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony.FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images
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Members of the Canadian delegation enter the stadium during the Opening Ceremony for the 2024 Paralympics, in Paris.Madeleine Mertens/The Associated Press
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Team Canada's Patrick Anderson and Katarina Roxon lead their contingent during the opening ceremonies of the Paralympic Games.Kacper Pempel/Reuters
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Alpha Jets from the Patrouille de France fly over the Champs-Elysees as delegations arrive for the Opening Ceremony for the 2024 Paralympic Games.Aurelien Morissard/The Associated Press
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Flag bearer Ebrahim Danishi of Afghanistan during the opening ceremony of the Summer Paralympic Games at Place de la Concorde in Paris.Pool/Getty Images
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Heloise Adelaide Letissier, French singer and songwriter, performs with dancers during the opening act at the opening ceremony of the Summer Paralympic Games.Michael Reaves/Getty Images
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Patrick Anderson and Katarina Roxon, flag bearers for Team Canada, hold their national flag during the opening ceremony of the Summer Paralympic Games at Place de la Concorde in Paris.Elsa/Getty Images
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Alpha jets form the Patrouille de France fly over the Concorde plaza during the Opening Ceremony for the 2024 Paralympic Games.Christophe Ena/The Associated Press
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Brazil's delegation parades at the Place de la Concorde during the Paris Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony.FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images
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France's Theo Curin and dancers perform during the Paris Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony.Julien De Rosa/Reuters
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Athletes prepare to enter the Place de la Concorde during the parade of athletes of the Paralympic Games.Alex Davidson/Getty Images
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Team Canada's athletes during the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games in Paris.Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
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The Paralympic mascot the Phryge performs during the Opening Ceremony for the 2024 Paralympic Games.Gonzalo Fuentes/The Associated Press
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Dancers perform during the opening act at the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at Place de la Concorde.Fiona Goodall/Getty Images
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The Patrouille acrobatique de France perform a flyby while releasing smoke in the colours of the French flag during the opening ceremony.Michael Reaves/Getty Images
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Team Canada's delegation march during the Opening Ceremony for the 2024 Paralympics in Paris.Aurelien Morissard/The Associated Press
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Athletes of Team Germany during the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games in Paris.Umit Bektas/Reuters
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Performers during the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games at the Place de la Concorde in Paris.Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
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Flagbearers Terry Bywater of Britain and Lucy Shuker of Britain lead their contingent during the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games in Paris.Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
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Colombia athletes parade during the Opening Ceremony for the 2024 Paralympic Games.Emilio Morenatti/The Associated Press
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Edina Mueller of Germany and Martin Schulz of Germany lead their contingent during the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games in Paris.Maja Smiejkowska/Reuters
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Athletes of Team China during the Paralympic Games opening ceremony in Paris.Umit Bektas/Reuters
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Just weeks after hosting the Olympics, Paris began the final chapter of its summer of sports Wednesday with the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games.
Against the backdrop of a setting sun, thousands of athletes paraded down the famed Champs-Elysees avenue to Place de la Concorde in central Paris.
About 50,000 people watched the ceremony in stands built around the iconic square, which is the biggest in Paris and is visible from afar because of its ancient Egyptian Obelisk. Accessibility for athletes in wheelchairs was facilitated with strips of asphalt laid along the avenue and placed over the square.
More than 4,000 athletes with physical, visual and intellectual impairments will compete in 22 sports from Thursday until Sept. 8.
Under the gaze of French President Emmanuel Macron, International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons, fighter planes flew overhead, leaving red-white-and blue vapors in the colors of the French national flag, before the delegations entered the square in alphabetical order.
Some delegations were huge — more than 250 athletes from Brazil — and some were tiny — less than a handful from Barbados and just three from Myanmar.
Although Wednesday night’s show started at 8 p.m. local time, fans had gathered hours earlier under a scorching sun to get top spots along the way. As performers entertained the crowd on stage, volunteers danced alongside Paralympians as they waved their national flags and the sky gave off a postcard-perfect orange glow.
Organizers had promised another spectacular show to open the Games. Once again it was held outside of a stadium, but unlike the rain-soaked Olympic opening ceremony on July 26, which featured a boat parade on the Seine River, the Paralympic ceremony was exclusively on land.
Organizers say more than 2 million of the 2.8 million tickets have been sold for the various Paralympic events.
The first medals handed out on Thursday will be in taekwondo, table tennis, swimming and track cycling. Athletes are grouped by impairment levels to ensure as level a playing field as possible. Only two sports, goalball and boccia, don’t have an Olympic equivalent.
Parsons said that the big crowds expected in Paris will mean a lot to the athletes, many of whom competed in front of empty stands at the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Parsons added that the ceremony would be the city’s way of welcoming Paralympic athletes with a “gigantic hug.”
The closing ceremony will be held at Stade de France, the national stadium.
