Ready, get set, go. The Paris Paralympic Games will be kicking off today, August 28, with a grand outdoor opening ceremony at 8pm local time (11.30pm IST) like the Olympics.
The opening ceremony, like that of the Summer Olympics this year, will be the first-of-its-kind event outside a stadium and covering various iconic spots in Paris, the City of Romance, from the Champs-Elysées to Place de la Concorde.
It will showcase the Paralympic athletes and the values they embody, an official said.
Around 184 delegations comprising 6,000 athletes and officials from around the world will be present at the event.
The ceremony will begin at the Champs-Elysées and the official parade will take place at the Place de la Concorde.
Artistic segments will also be included in the ceremony.
The Indian flag-bearers at the Paris Paralympics 2024 opening ceremony will be Sumit Antil and Bhagyashree Yadav.
In India the event will be live streamed on the Jio Cinema and Sports18 TV Network.
India has sent its largest-ever contingent to the games with 84 athletes competing across 12 sports.
Four para athletes are defending champions. They include Sumit Antil (men's javelin throw F64), Avani Lekhara (women's 10m air rifle shooting standing SH1), Krishna Nagar, (men's badminton singles SH6) and Manish Narwal (men's shooting 50m pistol SH1).
Before Manu Bhaker it was Lekhara who gave a historic performance at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, becoming the first woman to win a Paralympic gold and multiple medals in a single edition of the games.
She struck gold in women’s R2 10m air rifle standing SH1 and bronze in women’s R8 50m rifle 3 positions SH1.
Lekhara ended up tying the world record and setting a Paralympic record with a score of 249.6 points in the R2 10m air rifle standing SH1 final.
Sumit Antil won the gold in Tokyo Okympics in the men’s javelin throw F64 category, breaking the world record threee times.
Nagar beat Hong Kong’s Chu Man Kai 21-17, 16-21, 21-17 in the men’s singles SH6 final to win the gold medal at Tokyo. Nagar is also the current world champion.
Narwal set a new Paralympic record when he bagged gold in P4 - Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 event at the 2020 Tokyo Games. After qualifying in seventh position, Narwal topped the final with a score of 218.2.
Bhavinaben Patel won India’s first Paralympic medal in table tennis, bagging silver in women’s singles class 4 at Tokyo 2020.
Yogesh Kathuniya won a silver medal in the men’s discus throw F56 event at the Tokyo Paralympics.
He followed it up with two silver medals at the world championships in 2023 and 2024.
Mariyappan Thangavelu is looking for a hat-trick in his third Paralympic Games. He won a gold in the 2016 Rio Summer Paralympics and silver in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Paralympics in the men’s high jump T42 and T63 categories, respectively.
Suhas Yathiraj, currently ranked world No.1 in men’s singles SL4 category, is also a badminton player to watch out for. The Tokyo silver medallist is also an IAS officer of the 2007 batch of Uttar Pradesh cadre.
Sheela Devi too is a star player. Born with the rare medical condition called phocomelia she is the first and only international para archery champion without upper limbs.
An Arjuna Awardee, she has bagged two gold medals in the 2022 Asian Para Games (women’s compound bow) in the mixed doubles and women’s individual categories.
Bhagyashree Jadhav won a silver medal in the shot put F34 category at the 2022 Asian Para Games and finished seventh at the Tokyo Paralympics.
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