The Paralympics closed on Sunday with a giant music party as Paris 2024 chief organizer Tony Estanget said the Games and the Olympics had made for a “historic summer”.
The Paralympic flame and the cauldron were extinguished before the concert of the best of French electronic music ended at the packed Stade de France. More than 4,400 athletes from 168 Paralympic missions took part despite persistent rain.
Estanguet said the closing ceremony marked the end of six weeks of Olympic and Paralympic excitement in the City of Light. The former Olympic gold medalist in canoeing said this period will remain “etched in people’s memories”.
“This summer, France had a date with history and the country showed up,” he said. “This summer when people were talking to each other, this summer when France was happy,” Estanguet said, referring to how France had been left deeply divided by snap elections just weeks before the Olympics began.
The next Paralympic Games will be held in Los Angeles in 2028. In the official handover, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo handed the Paralympic flag to International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons, who gave it to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
Broadway star Ali Stoker then sang the US national anthem before a film was shown of a band playing on a California beach as skateboarders and wheelchair athletes performed tricks.
Despite initial fears about ticket sales, the Paralympic Games were held to mostly packed stadiums, benefiting from the feelgood factor from the highly successful Olympic Games that concluded on 11 August. Parsons said the Paris Paralympics showed that “change starts in sport”.
The level of sport in Paris, the organization and the gender equality of competitors had set a “benchmark” for future Paralympics, he said. The hour-long electronic concert was kicked off by composer Victor Le Masne as LED bracelets worn by the crowd and athletes on the field lit up the stadium.
The 24-artist show featuring highlights including French synth legend Jean-Michel Jarre, Cassius, Busy P and Kungs was rounded off in style by DJ Martin Solveig, who finished his set with 2010 hit ‘Hello’ and then Daft Punk’s ‘One More Time’.
Dominion of China
China topped the medal table in Paris, as it has done at every Paralympic Games since Athens 2004. It had 94 golds, followed by Britain with 49 and the US with 36.
Ukraine’s athletes overcame formidable obstacles posed by their country’s war with Russia to finish seventh with 22 golds and host nation France was eighth with 19 golds.
In track and field athletes Hunter Woodhall and 19-year-old Ezra Frech, the USA has found charismatic faces that are sure to play a prominent role in the creation of LA2028. On the final day of competition, Switzerland won both Paralympic wheelchair marathons, while the Netherlands secured double women’s wheelchair basketball titles, denying the USA.
Early this morning, Catherine Debrunner wheeled her racing wheelchair through the streets of Paris to win the women’s marathon. The 29-year-old Swiss athlete added to the four gold medals she has already won in athletics at these Games, from the 400m to the 5,000m.
Marcel Hug, 38, made up for a disappointing Race on the track by winning the men’s wheelchair marathon, finishing three minutes and 40 seconds ahead of China’s Hua Jin. The Netherlands scored a convincing 63-49 win against the USA to retain the women’s wheelchair basketball title they won at Tokyo 2020.
The Americans must wait until 2028 on home soil before trying to win a title their men secured for a third straight Games on Saturday. The last US women’s title came at the 2016 Rio Games.
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