THE Paralympic Games began on Wednesday evening with an opening ceremony in Paris.
The Archbishop of Canterbury wrote on social media that he was praying that the games would “provide an inspiring example of nations coming together to celebrate the very best of human achievement; to champion what these dedicated athletes can do rather than what they cannot.
“Let the Paralympic Games be a reminder to everyone, including the Church, of the importance of creating an inclusive society where all people can live their fullest life.”
The opening ceremony featured performances by disabled dancers, including South African break dancer Musa Motha, who performs on crutches. There were musical performances by the French singers Lucky Love, who has agenesis, and Christine and the Queens.
The Paralympic Games is making use of the same cauldron as the Olympics. Attached to a hot-air balloon moored in the Jardin des Tuileries, it was lit for the Paralympics at the conclusion of Wednesday evening’s ceremony.
The Paralympics and Olympics are also sharing the symbol of the Phrygian cap — a red hat associated with the French Revolution — as a mascot for the games. The Paralympic version is an anthropomorphic cap with a running blade in place of a leg.
Most of the opening ceremony took place in an auditorium constructed in Place de la Concorde, and athletes paraded down the Champs-Élysées.
The games will feature about 4400 athletes, from a record 165 countries, plus athletes from the Refugee Paralympic Team and a group of neutral athletes from Russia and Belarus.
A group of wheelchair users and rollerbladers travelled from Brighton to Paris for the opening of the games, with the skaters pushing the wheelchair users. Twenty-five skaters and five wheelchair users from the Wheels and Wheelchairs sports club have taken part, and arrived in Paris in time for the opening ceremony on Wednesday.
In an interview with Premier Christian Radio last Friday, the club’s president, Isaac Harvey, who is a member of the URC, said that the challenge would be “quite gruelling”, but he hoped that it would highlight “the power of inclusivity in sports”.
The competition began on Thursday, and runs until 8 September.
The first British medal was won in the velodrome by Daphne Schrager, who rode to a silver medal in the women’s C1-3 individual time trial.