An exhibition at the Panthéon to discover Paralympism

From June 11 to September 29, the Panthéon is hosting the exhibition “Paralympic Stories. From sporting integration to social inclusion (1948-2024)” as part of its "Olympiade Culturelle" program. The aim of the exhibition is to highlight the gradual integration of disabled athletes and the transformation of the discourses, images and materials associated with competitive sport.

The Panthéon, in keeping with its vocation of building citizenship and programming on social issues, is presenting an exhibition on the history of Paralympism from June 11 to September 29. Featuring archives, posters, photographs, sports equipment, objects and audiovisual documents, the scenography has been designed to immerse visitors in the near-century history of Paralympism.

The exhibition is organized according to a chronological logic based on four major periods

• 1948-1960: The “Hospital Games” are organized in Stoke Mandeville, where Dr. Ludwig Guttmann initiates the movement based on an innovative experiment to promote rehabilitative sport. Until 1960, the “Stoke Games” were an increasingly important international gathering exclusively for people in wheelchairs.

• 1960-1989: The first Paralympic Games in Rome in 1960 were still reserved for injured wheelchair users. Gradually, however, amputees, and later blind and partially-sighted athletes, were allowed to take part. It wasn't until 1984 and the New York Games that athletes with cerebral palsy were included.

• 1989-2012: period of a new Paralympism that seeks to broaden its scope and bring together all international sports federations representing athletes with different types of disability or inability, opening the door to deaf athletes and those with intellectual disabilities.

• Since 2012: The London Games in 2012 marked a turning point, with the media seizing on the Paralympic Games to stage sporting performances of an unprecedented kind. These Games also saw the reintegration of athletes with intellectual disabilities into three Para sports, while those of Tokyo in 2021 saw the appearance of new disciplines and the emergence of new Paralympic figures.

Accessibility of the exhibition and its contents to all audiences, and particularly to those with disabilities, is a major challenge. The scenography has therefore been designed to ensure a comfortable visit for all.

Extra info

At the Panthéon, where the great personalities who have earned the country's recognition through their civic commitment or their defense of republican values, the Paralympic Stories exhibition evokes those who, through their role within the Paralympic movement, have written a history based on pride in difference and the demand for a more inclusive society. The exhibition echoes the work of great men and women, in particular Louis Braille, inventor of tactile writing, who was inducted into the Panthéon in 1952.