The closing ceremony, held on the iconic Stade de France, was attended by roughly 4,400 athletes representing 168 Paralympic delegations from all over the world.
In his handle, Estanguet emphasised the importance of the Video games and the Olympics, stating, “They might stay ‘etched in individuals’s recollections’.”
“This summer season, France had a date with historical past, and the nation confirmed up,” he stated, as quoted by AFP.
“This summer season when individuals talked to one another, this summer season when France was comfortable,” stated the previous Olympic canoeist, referring to how France had been left deeply divided by snap elections simply weeks earlier than the Olympics opened.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo handed the Paralympic flag to Worldwide Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons, who then handed it to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
Broadway star Ali Stoker carried out the American nationwide anthem, adopted by a movie showcasing a band taking part in on a Californian seashore as skate boarders and wheelchair athletes carried out stunts.
Regardless of early considerations about ticket gross sales, the Paralympics drew giant crowds, with principally full stadiums. The occasion benefited from the optimistic momentum generated by the extremely profitable Olympics, which concluded on August 11.
Andrew Parsons acknowledged that the Paris Paralympics demonstrated that “change begins with sport,” highlighting how the competitors, group, and gender parity of the athletes had set new benchmarks for the Paralympics.
The closing ceremony featured a dynamic hour-long set with 20 DJs, launched by 76-year-old French digital music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre.
The Paralympic flame, housed in a cauldron designed as the bottom of a scorching air balloon, couldn’t full its closing ascent from the Tuileries Gardens on Sunday as a consequence of excessive winds and rain, based on organizers.
China topped the medals desk in Paris, persevering with their streak of main the Paralympics since Athens 2004, with 94 gold medals. Britain adopted with 49 golds, and the USA secured 36. Ukraine, regardless of the challenges posed by the continued battle with Russian forces, completed seventh with 22 gold medals. Host nation France positioned eighth with 19 golds.
On the ultimate day of competitors, Switzerland claimed victory in each Paralympic wheelchair marathons, whereas the Netherlands gained the ladies’s wheelchair basketball title for the second consecutive time, overcoming the USA.
Early within the morning, Catherine Debrunner raced by means of the crisp autumn air in Paris to win the ladies’s marathon. The 29-year-old Swiss athlete added this victory to her spectacular haul of 4 gold medals from the observe occasions, spanning distances from 400 meters to five,000 meters, together with a silver medal within the T53 100 meters.
Marcel Hug, 38, made up for a disappointing observe efficiency by dominating the boys’s wheelchair marathon, ending a outstanding three minutes and 40 seconds forward of China’s Hua Jin.
A second of silence was noticed after one of many girls’s marathons to honor Rebecca Cheptegei, the Ugandan Olympic marathon runner who tragically handed away earlier this week following an assault by her associate. Cheptegei had positioned 44th within the girls’s marathon on August 11.
In wheelchair basketball, the Netherlands secured a convincing 63-49 victory over the USA to retain the ladies’s title they first gained at Tokyo 2020. The American girls must wait till 2028 to problem for the title once more, as their final win was on the 2016 Rio Video games. The USA males’s group, in the meantime, gained their third consecutive title on Saturday.
