“Our main challenge is to create encounters with the general public. Ensuring that the French, at the Paris 2024 Games, know the Paralympic sports and their athletes and are fully behind them,” proclaims Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris Games organizing committee (Cojop). “Everyone who has ever had the chance to experience the Paralympic Games says that there is a before and an after. And we really want to communicate this excitement around the Paras, adds Etienne Thobois, general director of the same committee, a few days before the second edition of the Paralympic day. There is an obvious challenge for us to change the way we look at disability, to break down a certain number of preconceived ideas.”
For the occasion, the Cojop did not skimp: 24 parasports in demonstration and/or initiation, such as wheelchair basketball, boccia, para archery or even wheelchair tennis, and more than 80 top athletes level, including archery champion Matt Stutzman, silver medalist in London in 2012, and known for practicing with his legs and feet. “People come to see a sporting spectacle and not disabled people playing sports. To create desire, we must demystify and popularize parasport,” insists Guislaine Westelynck, president of the French Handisport Federation.
The Elysée also announced on Friday that Emmanuel Macron was also expected for this Paralympic day. The Head of State will be accompanied by the Ministers of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and Solidarities Aurore Bergé for a stroll through the heart of the installations aimed at raising public awareness. During the day, he will attend sporting demonstrations and will give the athletes taking part in the Paralympic Games, Arnaud Assoumani, Manon Genest and Ugo Didier, their qualification tickets.
Meeting the first qualified athletes
After Place de la Bastille, place at Place de la République. A place of sharing and passage par excellence for Parisians, where this second edition of the Paralympic Day will be held on Sunday between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Less than a year before the Paris Games and on the eve of the official opening of the Paralympics ticket office. “The day will be festive, friendly, open to everyone, whether you have a disability or not,” rejoices Tony Estanguet. Eleven months before the Paralympic Games, we will also be able to meet the first athletes from the French team officially qualified for the Games, who will need all the support of the French public next summer.
“So that we are considered as athletes in our own right and not as entirely separate.” The formula is again from Guislaine Westelynck, delighted to contribute to the influence of parasport, just a few months after having organized the Paraworld Athletics Championships at the Charléty stadium in Paris. “There is still media work to be done, we are far from the Italians who broadcast parasports on Rai,” she adds. It’s true that France TV currently only broadcasts parasport during the Paralympic Games. “But we are really working to change the general public about parasport, with in particular the merger of the Olympic and Paralympic teams into a single French team, so that all the athletes who are part of it benefit from the same light on their practice and their success,” adds Etienne Thobois.
Moreover, on Sunday, there will be Paralympic athletes, able-bodied athletes, veterans and contenders for Olympic gold in Paris. And a public who will be able to try, experience, appreciate, even start ticking the boxes in their Excel table to be ready on Monday morning to rush to the places on sale for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.