Vibrant Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony calls for "inclusion revolution" through sport under lights of historical French square

More than 200 years after Place de la Concorde saw the upheaval of the French Revolution, the colours of the republic lit up the historic square again – in flags, clothes, draperies, and smoke clouds in the skies. Paris was about to start a new revolution.

From discord to concord, the Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games highlighted the paradoxes in modern society where people with disabilities are celebrated on the sports field but face numerous obstacles in the everyday landscape that is not adapted to them, admired but also pitied, stared at but also invisible.

Born from the mind of Thomas Jolly, who was also the artistic director of the 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony, the Paralympics Opening Ceremony asked difficult questions and called for action in society at the same time as celebrating sport and the achievements of Paralympians.

The mood was at times festive, at times sombre, but Paris 2024 Organising Committee President Tony Estanguet was quick to caution, unlike the revolution Place de la Concorde witnessed two centuries ago when Louis XVI was executed on the same square, this would be a positive one.

“Welcome to the country of love, and the country of revolution. Don’t worry: tonight, there will be no storming of the Bastille, no guillotine. Since tonight is the start of the most beautiful of all revolutions: the Paralympic revolution," Estanguet said to cheers from packed, makeshift stands in one of France's most historic locations and symbols of change, once called Place Louis XV, then renamed into Place de la Revolution and ultimately into Place de la Concorde.

"Tonight, the revolutionaries are you, the athletes," Estanguet continued. "Like our ancestors with their phrygien caps, you have panache and audacity. Like all the revolutionaries around the world, you have courage and determination. Like them, you are fighting for a cause that is bigger than you.”

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From the first performances, the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paralympic Games put a spotlight on the paradox that exists in society, which claims to be inclusive but does not truly adapt to the needs of people with disabilities.

The stories of two groups of dancers - one rigid in black suits and sunglasses, the other colourful and jubilant - were woven throughout the entire ceremony arc to illustrate this message. While they interacted on stage in a dance, the differences between these groups became clear as the monochrome dancers failed to adapt to the more creative and liberal colourful troupe.

Grand pianos were turned into props as the lead singer of Christine and the Queens confidently strutted across several black tops to perform a new take on Edith Piaf's classic "Non, je ne regrette rien". And as the song’s final notes died out, the black crew removed their sunglasses as if seeing their colourful counterparts for the first time.

That small movement reflected the bigger shift in perceptions and actions that Estanguet and later, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Andrew Parsons referenced in their speeches at the ceremony.

"Here at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, we will celebrate what makes us different, show there is strength in difference, beauty in difference, and that difference serves as a powerful force for good," Parsons said, evoking the national motto of France - liberté, egalité, and fraternité - as a call for change.

"The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will show what persons with disabilities can achieve at the highest level when the barriers to succeed are removed. The fact these opportunities largely exist only in sport in the year 2024 is shocking. It is proof we can and must do more to advance disability inclusion - whether on the field of play, in the classroom, concert hall or in the boardroom. That is why 225 years on from when Place de la Concorde was central to the French Revolution, I hope the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games spark an inclusion revolution."

A historic Parade of Athletes

Even before Estanguet and Parsons' figurative call to arms was taken up, there was already a sense of change in the air. The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games started with the first Opening Ceremony to be held outside a stadium.

Theo Curin, the sweetheart of the French Para swimming team at Rio 2016, arrived to the Concorde stage in a taxi covered with phryge mascots to declare “Welcome to Paris!”. As the fluffs of red, blue, and white smoke blasted and dissolved around him, the athletes started arriving to the historic square via the Champs-Elysees.

The French capital's world-famous avenue was turned into a parade route as 5,100 athletes representing 168 delegations passed in front of thousands of spectators, some of who were wearing jerseys and waving flags of the different nations they would be supporting when the action starts on 29 August.

The parade route started at the bottom of Champs-Elysees with the Arc de Triomphe shining under the setting sun in the background, the Agitos symbol a splash of colour on its Concorde-facing side.

The athletes poured into Place de la Concorde, some formal, others blazing. Brazil got a solid cheer from the stands and flagbearer Gabriel Dos Santos Araujo screamed to return the enthusiasm of his nation's fans. Cuba’s sprint queen Omara Durand danced into the square while Team Spain enthusiastically waved straw hats – although one athlete in the delegation opted to swap that head covering for a big orange and red wig.

All athletes got a warm reception at the Concorde as they took a turn around the ancient obelisk. A section of red-clad spectators rose up to welcome the Canadian delegation by waving maple leaf flags. Japanese fans, unable to cheer on their team in person at the home Games three years ago, made sure to be spotted in the packed stands at Paris 2024 as their home athletes passed near them.

The Refugee Paralympic Team got one of the biggest cheers of all... at least until the hosts walked into the square. A standing ovation greeted the French team as Joe Dassin’s “Les Champs-Elysees” came on. The athletes and spectators sang along with the 60s tune, and even Kazakhstan flagbearers joined in, twirling to the music.

DJ Myd – dressed in a tricolour coat that stretched the length of the stage and hung over its edge – kept the audience in a nostalgic mood, putting on songs that had rang out each time French athletes won gold medals at the 2024 Olympic Games: Johnny Hallyday’s “Que je t’aime” and Charles Aznavour’s “Emmenez-moi”. By the time the French Paralympic team finally reached their seating location, flagbearers Alexis Hanquinquant and Nentenin Keita had all of the stands, and even the orchestra, dancing along with them.

It was time to resume the party.

Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony: From discord to concord

As the athletes settled in their places, the historic square was transformed into a theatre stage to once again highlight the triumphs and challenges of people with disabilities who make up 15 per cent of the world’s population.

French musician Lucky Love was their voice on the stage as he sang "My Ability". As he questioned the spectators, "What the hell is wrong with my body? Am I not enough?”, the artist removed his white jacket to show a missing left arm.

Lit up in the colours of the French flag as “La Marseillaise” rang out over the stands, the obelisk was the star of the show on Wednesday, 28 August. Following its patriotic colour change, there were graffiti-like images projected on the ancient monument while the two earlier dance groups, now both dressed in white, came together in a dynamic choreographed dance.

The issues between the two groups were resolved and the stage was now set for the entrance of the Paralympic Flame.

Paris 2024 cauldron takes flight again

Just over 30 days since Paralympians helped to take the Olympic Flame to the cauldron in Jardin de Touliers, it was now the turn of Olympians to help light the Paralympic cauldron. This concept built on the Paris 2024 pledge to bring the Olympic and Paralympic Games closer together, in what was another revolutionary move by the organising committee.

Symbolically, it was swimmer Florent Manaudou, who had captained the Olympic Torch Relay and was the first torchbearer once the Olympic Flame arrived on French soil in Marseille, who carried the Paralympic Flame into Place de la Concorde.

The flame then travelled down an illustrious line of Paralympic athletes, starting with France's wheelchair tennis player Michael Jeremiasz. The Beijing 2008 Paralympic champion passed the flame to Italian wheelchair fencer Bebe Vio, star of the Netflix Rising Phoenix documentary, as dancers holding lit torches began moving to the world-famous ballet score "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel.

From multi-sport talent Oksana Masters of the United States the flame passed to German "Blade Jumper" Markus Rehm who carried it out of Place de La Concorde to the Jardin de Tuileries where it was passed to French Paralympic heroes, including Assia El Hannouni and Christian Lachaud. They, in turn, handed it over to five athletes who are competing at Paris 2024 – a tribute to all the French Paralympians set to compete in the French capital over the next 11 days.

The French torchbearers grouped around the cauldron to light it together, after which it rose into the Parisian skies - as it had done every night of the 2024 Olympics.

The Games have arrived to Paris again, this time also bringing with it an air of revolution.