Paris 2024 Paralympic Games: Why the flame was lit in England and not in Greece ?

La flamme paralympique a été allumée ce samedi. D.R.

À quatre jours du lancement des Jeux paralympiques de Paris, et sous une pluie battante, la flamme a été allumée samedi en Angleterre, à Stoke Mandeville.

"Cette météo capricieuse nous accompagne", joked Tony Estanguet, the president of the Paris 2024 organising committee, almost a month after the Olympic opening ceremony was held in the deluge.

The flame was lit by two British Paralympians, Helene Raynsford and Gregor Ewan. “It's such an honour,”, said Helen Raynsford, the first female Paralympic champion in para rowing when the sport made its debut in Beijing in 2008.

"It is the birthplace of the Paralympic Games". The history of the Paralympic Games dates back to 1948, when German neurologist Ludwig Guttmann organised sporting events for veterans who had become paraplegic or confined to wheelchairs at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in northwest London.

"A sporting and social movement"

The event was planned to coincide with the 1948 London Olympics. From this initiative the Paralympic movement was born.

The first Games were held in Rome in 1960, with 400 athletes from 23 countries. Ludwig Guttman “created a sporting and social movement that today has a profound impact around the world, advancing the lives of millions of people with disabilities,”, said Andrew Parsons, President of the International Paralympic Committee.

The flame was lit in a stadium not far from the hospital where Ludwig Guttman worked. This is the first time since 2012 and the London Games that the Paralympic flame has been lit in Stoke Mandeville.

“We were keen to come here for the lighting of the flame”, Tony Estanguet told journalists, hailing a””beautiful and strong story”.

Under the Channel

Andrew Parsons was the first torchbearer. On Sunday, it will pass through the Channel Tunnel. Twenty-four British torchbearers, launched into the tunnel, will join 24 French torchbearers halfway through to pass the torch to the city of Calais.

In total, 12 torches will travel from Sunday to Wednesday across France before reaching Paris and the Olympic cauldron, located in the Tuileries Gardens.

A thousand torchbearers will take turns in around fifty cities. The Paralympic Games, organized for the first time in France, will be launched on August 28 with an opening ceremony between the Champs-Élysées and the Place de la Concorde, orchestrated, like that of the Olympic Games in July, by artistic director Thomas Jolly.

“We can't wait to be there”, said Tony Estanguet. “Everything is in place to make these Games a great celebration”, he added. “We have kept the same ambition, the same ingredients: the iconic sites, the desire to create atmosphere in the stadiums, etc.”.

1.8 million tickets sold

“What will be at stake is this extra soul around the issue of disability”, added Tony Estanguet, who hopes that the Games will “evolve towards a more inclusive”.

Some 2.5 million tickets were put on sale for the Paralympic Games. About 1.8 million were sold, according to Tony Estanguet. “We should exceed our goal, with 2 million tickets sold before the start of the Games”, he said.

About 4,400 athletes are competing in 549 events, which will take place in 18 competition venues, including 16 identical to their Olympic counterparts (including the Grand Palais, the Château de Versailles and the Stade de France).