China's weightlifter Qi Yongkai carrying the flag. [Photo/Agencies]
PARIS -- French President Emmanuel Macron declared the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games open on Wednesday evening at Place de la Concorde.
This is the first time that France has hosted the Paralympic Summer Games, and is also the first time that a Paralympics opening ceremony has taken place outside a stadium, in the heart of the host city.
The athletes paraded from the bottom of the Champs-Elysees and made their way around the stage area, greeted by the Phryges, mascots of the Games.
The opening ceremony on the theme of "Paradox" told the story of two groups moving from discord to concord.
"The aim of this ceremony is to change the way we look at people with disabilities, and to oppose all preconceived opinions on these issues, but not in a vain and sterile opposition," said Thomas Jolly, artistic director of the Paris 2024 ceremonies.
Artists perform during fireworks at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony at the Place de la Concorde. [Photo/Agencies]
Around 4,400 athletes from a record 168 delegations will participate in the 11-day competition across 22 sports starting from Friday, with Eritrea, Kiribati and Kosovo making their Paralympic debuts.
China's delegation entered with wheelchair fencer Gu Haiyan and weightlifter Qi Yongkai carrying the flag together.
China has sent a delegation of 284 athletes - 126 males and 158 females - to compete across 302 events in 19 sports. Among them, 95 are first-time Paralympians.
48-year-old table tennis player Xiong Guiyan is the eldest athlete in China's delegation, while swimmer Zhu Hui, 15, is the youngest.
Since the Rio Games in 2016, a team of refugees has taken part in both Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Paralympic Phryge performs during the Parade of Nations as part of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony at the Place de la Concorde. [Photo/Agencies]
This time in Paris, eight athletes and one guide runner will compete as part of the largest-ever Refugee Paralympic Team. They are based in six countries and will compete across six sports.
France's delegation concluded the parade of athletes along the Champs-Elysees to Place de la Concorde.
Tony Estanguet, President of the Paris 2024 organizing committee, gave a speech to welcome the athletes.
"Even if all your life stories are unique, you have often lived with people listing all the things you are unable to do. Until the day you first entered a sports club. On that day, you understood that sport would not impose any limits. On that day, you understood that sport would never put you in a box. Like all athletes, you trained, you sweated, you failed and you got back up again. And you became the great champions that we are honored to have with us tonight."
International Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons followed with a speech of his own.
"At a time of growing global conflict, increasing hate, and rising exclusion, let sport be the social glue that brings us together," he said.
"Every person with a disability deserves the opportunity to thrive and live life free from barriers, free from discrimination and free from marginalisation," he added.
After the final relays in the Tuileries Garden, five torchbearers lit the Paris 2024 cauldron together. The cauldron rose into the sky once again, heralding the return of the Games.
