Paris 2024 Paralympics
I am very grateful to have been able to see different events at the Olympics, and at the paralympics! I really enjoyed the vibe of the city of the two month period.
This article contains a breakdown of all of the different events that I have seen, you can skip to the relevant part here:
- Paralympic flame
- Opening ceremony
- Wheelchair tennis
- Track cycling
- Wheelchair fencing
- Closing ceremony
You can read my Olympic article here.
Paralympic flame (27st August)
I’m very fortunate that I was also able to see the Paralympic flame. There were less people that for the Olympic flame, but the vibe was still nice. The flame went around the running track, so there were lots of places you could see it from.
There were definitely some groups organised via schools or youth groups, because a lot of kids were wearing the reflective jackets. there were two rows of kids that lead from the track to the centre so that the flame could pass them - this is going to be a super cool experience for the kids.
Opening ceremony (28th August)
I watched the opening ceremony online from home. The number of people watching online was significantly less than for the Olympics. It makes some sense, but I do think the Paralympics also deserves the same level of hype.
I thought that the dancing was really cool - so many people on stage at once! It’s wild to me that people can be that coordinated - which makes sense they’re professionals (and my sense of coordination is terrible).
I enjoyed parts of the opening ceremony, but I thought the Olympic opening was better. For the Olympic opening ceremony, they had different shows during the boat parade which made it more interesting to watch. With the Paralympic opening, the dancing at the start and end was cool, but the parading of the flags didn’t seem so engaging.
This is my first time watching the opening ceremonies, but friends have said that the the passing of the flags is always a little dull.
I really like how much representation of the disabled community there was - I feel like often in media people with non visible disabilities are often at centre stage.
Wheelchair tennis (31st August)
individual ticket price: 20€ (category A)
Wheelchair tennis was a lot of fun! We had great seats for the game. It’s my first time watching a full tennis match (I only really watch rugby). I occasionally play tennis on a local court, but I never play with the real rules because I’m not great at it - I play for fun not for points. That being said, some of the rules between tennis and wheelchair tennis are different, notably the ball being allowed to double bounce. That makes sense - moving in a wheelchair isn’t as easy as it is to run a few steps forwards or backwards.
There were some really intense moments during the games. It seems the crowd didn’t always follow normal etiquette for a tennis game (or maybe I’m wrong on this). There was quite a lot of cheering while the point hadn’t yet been won which I can imagine being very distracting for players. I’m sure they do a level of training to ignore external factors, but I imagine it’s still hard to avoid.
Tennis is something that always reminds me of my nana because she likes to watch tennis whenever it’s on TV. I wanted to find a tennis related postcard at the venue to send to her (I love writing postcards), but they didn’t seem to have any. Seriously, postcards would have made for great souvenirs.
Track cycling (1st September)
individual ticket price: 15€ (category C)
Getting there was easy despite being a little far from Paris, the RER C ran frequently and it wasn’t too busy going there or coming back (wooo!). I sat and read on the train so the time passed fast (I love reading on trains). This was my first time seeing any track event, or being at a velodrome so it was cool (the word velodrome comes from the French word vélo meaning bike, and the ancient Greek work drómos meaning race course).
When we arrived, we could see some athletes preparing for their race. Some where actually cycling on the track, others were on the centre part on stationary bikes. Before the races started, they did some cool light displays on the track.
All of the races were impressive, but some stood out to me more than others.
There was a athlete competing, Sophie Unwin with pilot Jenny Holl who’s in the same online space as me so it was cool to have someone to root for. I root for all of the athletes (because it’s truly impressive what they can do!), but there’s something extra special about it being someone you know - she set a world record and won a gold medal!
There was a heartbreaking moment where a French tandem rider claimed a mechanical issue with their bike and asked for a restart - understandable because they’re going speeds upwards for 50km/h with no brakes, if there is something wrong with the bike it needs to be looked at. However after looking at the bike, and the replay of the start, the referrer said there was no issues with the bike so they were unable to restart. The outcome sucked, the rules are brutal, and I understand the need for it, but at the same time it’s heartbreaking for the athletes who trained so hard for this moment. I would not want to be the one making that decision.
Team GB smashed the track cycling - the won so many medals!
We had a great day at the velodrome, and I’d definitely go back to watch another event.
Wheelchair fencing (3rd September)
individual ticket price: 40€ (category A)
Wheelchair fencing was so so cool to see. The Grand Palais was such a cool venue choice.
Our tickets were for the medal ceremony which was due to start at 8pm. We arrived at the venue at 6:30pm and were told that they were running behind my at least one hour, so we could choose to wait or we could come back. We opted to walk around and then come back. We went to the Olympic store and then to the samsung tent, my parter won a pin in their quiz, and we got a tote bag and keyring for participating.
We arrived at the venue again and the queue started to move. At this point I could feel a headache arriving, but didn’t have any painkillers, I hoped that drinking enough water would help (it did not).
Once inside, we took to our seats - the seating here was massive, genuinely I was amazed at how high the seating went (which is essentially scaffolding). We had category A seats, so were fairly close to the front. There was already a match on when we arrived, and honestly I had no idea what was really happening! There were multiple different matches happening at the same time so it was really hard to follow specific matches because I wanted to see everything that was going on. There was cheering, but sometimes hard to know which person they were cheering for (usually French players).
We were not meant to see the qualification rounds, we were only meant to see the finals. No complaints on my side - we got to see more than what we expected. However I’m not sure what that means for other spectators and the athletes. Did people have tickets to see this but were told to leave early so that they could get everyone ready for the finals? Because I would be disappointed if I got to see less than I expected. Does this usually happen with no spectators? I would have thought spectators would be there. I imagine that this was quite distracting for athletes to have people coming in an out during a game.
After the qualifications, the finals started (over an hour later than the scheduled time). There were only two matches happening at the same time which was much easier to follow than in the qualifying rounds.
The games were intense! The speed at which they move is crazy, there were moments were multiple points were scored without the time remaining going down - meaning that they were getting a point in less than a second! Their reaction times are so impressive.
We didn’t stay for the medal ceremony because by this time I was feeling awful. I felt rude not staying, because the athletes worked incredible hard for this moment, so I feel like it should be celebrated. A lot of the crowd had already left. I’m not sure if other people have had this experience, but I’ve noticed that a lot of French people will leave if there’s no one French left to play or receive a medal. This seems wild to me, because I want to see everyone play, not just the athletes representing the country I’m from.
I’m excited to visit the Grand Palais when it’s open to the public again because it’s such a beautiful building. It’s so cool that there was an olympic sport here!
Closing ceremony (8th September)
We just got back from a weekend away, so we ordered some food and then watched the opening ceremony from home. They weren’t very lucky with the weather (again) but they still put on a great show.
One of the highlights for me, was the breakdancing! It was cool to see how all of the dancers had their own role, and different styles within the dance.
I thought the line up of electronic artists was impressive and how they switched between artists - electronic is not the style of music that I usually listen to but I can appreciate it. I’m sure seeing it live would have been a lot of fun! One thing I did remark on, in a positive way, was the amount of women included in the line up. When I think of electronic artists, the list would be made up of men (which is maybe a me issue, or maybe an industry issue).
I didn’t catch the end, because I crashed (I slept for over 10 hours so I clearly needed it). I can’t believe it’s over!
And just like that the games are over! It’s been a wild two month period in Paris and I’m so happy with my choice to stay. I think the city handled everything well especially when it came to public transport (I’m a big fan of public transport). It will be interesting to see how different Paris feels in the coming weeks and the traces that are left of the olympics.
I know that a lot of businesses were impacted by the lack of usual tourists, so hopefully the season has just shifted a little. A lot of the tourists I saw during the games, were from Belgium and the Netherlands which make sense. But they’re very different tourists than the tourists that come from the US. You can take the train from Amsterdam to Paris in 3h30 so you can come just for a weekend.
Throughout the city, there were signs pointing to different venues, people helping in metro stations and changes to road layouts. How fast will things go back to normal? When will all of the traces disappear? At what point will we stop talking about the Olympics?
If you would like to share your thoughts, you can comment on my instagram post!
published date: 9th September 2024
read more articles here