Paris 2024 throws epic party to bid adieu to summer of unforgettable Games
Over the last 11 days Paris has celebrated, clapped, risen in standing ovations, cried and fell silent in awe. On Sunday (8 September), at the Closing Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, Paris was ready to party.
The 64,000-capacity Stade de France was packed as people gathered to say a final farewell to the summer of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the French capital.
It was the first Paralympic Summer Games the country has ever hosted and the expectations were high, especially after a tough previous Paralympic cycle under Covid-19 restrictions. Paris 2024 lived up to the hype with dazzling athletic performances at iconic venues, ground-breaking ceremonies in front of packed stands, a record number of participating National Paralympic Committees and the first-ever medals for the Paralympic Refugee Team.
If revolution was the theme of the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paralympics, after a week and a half of action across 22 sports, there was only one more call to make – to enjoy and celebrate the achievements of the 4,400 athletes from 169 delegations who competed at the Games.
"We were all in heaven. And while these emotions may have been fleeting, the memory of this historic summer will remain with us forever," Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet said in his closing speech.
"The Paris 2024 Games are coming to an end, but their message is staying with us. Just like the athletes who have inspired us so much, just like the men and women who pushed all the limits to make these Games a success, let's keep trying, keep failing and keep getting back up again.
"Let's keep doing, let's keep believing, and above all... let's keep daring."
Santa opened the final ceremony of the Paris 2024 Games with Johnny Hallyday’s classic "Vivre pour le Meilleur".
Notes of farewell: From trumpets and orchestras to electronic music extravaganza
Music was at the heart of the final Paris 2024 ceremony. Leaping between styles and decades, from Johnny Hallyday to Jean-Michel Jarre, the performances in the Stade de France were an unpredictable and unmatched tribute to French culture and its role in the international music scene.
It was also a beautiful showcase of musicians with disabilities.
Andre Feydy, who is missing his right arm below the elbow, kept the spectators spellbound with his clean, trumpet solo of La Marseillaise. Standing alone on stage in a blue beret, wings painted in the tricolour affixed to his back, Feydy's notes rang out over the stands, at first in silence but then as if on cue the stands began to sing the national anthem in unison with the brass instrument.
The stands would continue singing along for the rest of the joyful night, eagerly picking up Joe Dassin's "Champs-Elysees" - an already iconic song that developed a new legacy during the summer of 2024 when it was heard throughout the Paris 2024 venues - and Desireless' "Voyage, Voyage".
If music was the star of the show, dance was the visual portrayal of it with B-Boys and B-Girls taking centre stage with DJ Cut Killer, a pioneer of hip-hop in France, setting the beat. Breaking made its first Olympic appearance at Paris 2024, but at the Closing Ceremony there was an exciting twist - among the eight dancers were some with disabilities, performing gravity-defying tricks that got the stands dancing as well.
B-Boys and B-Girls, some with disabilities, took centre stage during the Closing Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Even the athletes could not stand still. As international classics, like Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" came over the loudspeakers during the Parade of the Flags of the Nations, the athletes watching from their seats forgot the formalities and formed a long conga line made up of representatives of different delegations and snaked through the Stade de France, drawing more athletes in with every turn.
More than 5,800 athletes and accompanying staff were at the stadium, the setting for so many jubilant Para athletics moments during the Games.
"These Games have been fabulous," said one of the biggest heroes of the purple track, Cuba's Omara Durand, who completed a clean sweep of three gold medals to end a remarkable career spanning five Paralympic Games. "I've enjoyed them to the maximum, and I'll continue to do so until the last bit of applause from the crowd."
There was much more applause - as well as singing and dancing - to follow.
The athletes sang along with "California Dreamin'" as the Paralympic flag was passed from Paris 2024 to the host of the next Paralympic Games, Los Angeles 2028, and gladly joined the rave party that followed as 24 French DJs took over Stade de France for an epic marathon of electronic music - including a surprise inclusion of Daft Punk's "One More Time".
Flagbearers carried the flags of the 169 delegations who took part in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
The flying cauldron rises to the sky for the last time
Before the party started in earnest, however, there was a sad goodbye to be said.
The Paralympic Flame arrived at the Stade de France, carried by the captain of France's victorious blind football team Frederic Villeroux, as French duo Amadou & Mariam performed the Serge Gainsbourg classic, “Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais” [I have come here to tell you that I am going].
The spectators followed the moving flicker of the lantern as it passed from one Paralympic athlete to another until arriving in the hands of three-time Paris 2024 champion in Para cycling road Mathieu Bosredon and France’s first Paralympic boccia champion Aurelie Aubert.
Together they blew out the flame and, as they did, the flame in the hot-air balloon cauldron suspended in the air over the Tuileries Garden went out at the same time.
The rain continued to pour down, as if reminding of the change of seasons, and with a new start ahead, the road ahead was clear to embark on the revolutionary promise made at the Place de la Concorde 12 days ago.
"We all have a collective responsibility to use the momentum of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games to make the world around us more inclusive," said International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons. "What a Paralympic legacy this would be, not just for these athletes, but the world’s 1.3 billion persons with disabilities that they represent.
"Beyond 12 days of sport, we must break down the barriers that exist in society. We must enable and empower persons with disabilities to excel outside of the field of play, in education, in employment, in entertainment, in government, in civil society – everywhere!
"Diversity and difference should not divide us. Diversity and difference should unite us, drive change and make this planet better for everyone."
Martin Solveig was among the 24 French DJs who performed at Stade de France for a party send off to the 2024 Paralympic Games.