The French capital will host 11 days of top-tier competition, showcasing emerging stars across a series of iconic venues.
.png)
The Paralympic Games are eleven days of top-tier competition featuring 22 sports. With 549 medals up for grabs, the Games will see 4,400 athletes from 128 nations competing, each with a physical or cognitive disability.
When do the Games begin?
The opening ceremony for the 17th Summer Paralympic Games will take place in Paris on Wednesday, August 28, starting at 7pm UK time. Following the tradition of this summer’s Olympics, the ceremony will be held in the city rather than a stadium. It will begin on the River Seine and move to the Champs Élysées, culminating with a "people’s parade" that is open to the public. The procession will proceed to Place de la Concorde, where the final segment of the evening will feature the lighting of the Paralympic torch. The sporting events will commence the following day.
Where will the sporting events take place?
Several of the venues you admired during the summer Olympics will be reused for the Paralympics, with 18 of the 35 Olympic sites being repurposed. The Stade de France and La Défense Arena will again host athletics and swimming, respectively, while cycling will return to the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome. The Eiffel Tower stadium, which had beach volleyball earlier, will now feature blind football after the sand has been removed. The sole event taking place outside Paris will be para-shooting in Châteauroux.
What time will the events start?
You’ve likely already adapted to the time difference for following sports from Paris, which is just one hour ahead of the UK. Events will start at 8:30am local time and run until 10:30pm.