Paris 2024 Paralympics: Preview, full schedule, and how to watch live action
After 16 sizzling medal days in Paris during the 2024 Olympic Games, it is time to make history at the Paralympic Games. The French capital has hosted three Summer Olympic Games, but it will be the city and nation's first Summer Paralympic Games.
And the hosts are eager to make sure it is unforgettable.
The Paralympic Games Paris 2024 takes place from 28 August to 8 September, with 4,400 athletes set to compete. This includes eight athletes and one guide representing the Refugee Paralympic Team, which is making its third Paralympic appearance.
Twenty sports featuring athletes with physical, vision, and intellectual impairments will compete at Paris 2024, with 549 sets of medals up for grabs across 11 days of competition.
Similar to the 2024 Olympics where there was full gender parity on the field of play for the first time in Games history, the 2024 Paralympic Games will also go down in the history books thanks to a record 236 medal events for women and the most female competitors ever.
The Paralympic flame will be lit in Stoke Mandeville, a British village that first hosted the predecessor of the Games in 1948 and is considered the birthplace of the Paralympic Movement. Following the lighting on 24 August, the flame will travel to France.
Four days later, on 28 August, the Paralympic cauldron will be lit at an Opening Ceremony in central Paris. Following on the theme from the Olympic Games, this Opening Ceremony will be the first to be hosted outside a stadium. Instead of floating along the Seine in boats, however, athletes will parade through the Avenue des Champs-Elysees to the Place de la Concorde with about 65,000 spectators along the route and at the finish point.
Many of the venues that have dazzled spectators during the Olympics will also set the stage for Paralympic sports action. Some of the venues are hosting Paralympic equivalents of Olympic sports. For example, the archery venue Invalides will now host Para archery, Grand Palais will transition from fencing to wheelchair fencing, and equestrian will return to Chateau de Versailles for Para equestrian competitions.
Other venues will see an even bigger transformation. Champ-de-Mars Arena, the scene of Teddy Riner's double gold judo triumph, will welcome the best wheelchair rugby players of the world, while the Eiffel Tower Stadium's beach volleyball courts will be converted into grassy pitches for blind football.
Although the number of sports at Paris 2024 remains the same as for the previous Paralympic Games edition at Tokyo 2020 in 2021, 10 medal events were added to the line-up to give more opportunities to female athletes and those with high support needs.
Boccia will have gender-specific events for the first time in Paralympic history, which increases the total number of boccia medals from seven in Tokyo to 11 in Paris. Para judo will also feature a new format as there will now be a separate competition for athletes who are fully blind and classified as B1.
Para badminton made its Paralympic debut at Tokyo 2020, along with Para taekwondo, and will return for Paris 2024 with an additional competition in the women's singles SH6 class.
Biggest stars and storylines at Paris 2024
Whether you are a fan of team or individual sports, there are plenty of exciting storylines to keep you on the edge of your seat during the 2024 Paralympic Games.
Tokyo 2020 breakout stars like Avani Lekhara – the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic gold medal – have since grown up and are looking to repeat their stellar performances, while Games veterans like USA’s Oksana Masters, Italy’s Bebe Vio, Egypt’s Sherif Osman, and Switzerland's Marcel Hug will be trying to solidify their legacy.
Dual summer and winter sports threat, 17-time Paralympic medallist Masters is out to defend her Para cycling gold. Wheelchair fencer Vio – a star of Netflix’s Rising Phoenix documentary – is aiming for a third consecutive gold in the individual event, while Para powerlifter Osman is fighting for his fourth gold to get closer to the six-gold target he has set for his career.
And don't miss wheelchair racer Hug, aka The Silver Bullet, as he chases more world records on Stade de France's purple track and Paris 2024's memorable marathon route.
Over at Roland-Garros, new champions will be crowned in the wheelchair tennis men’s singles and quads after the retirement of legends Shingo Kunieda of Japan and Australia’s Dylan Alcott. Fellow Japanese and four-time Grand Slam winner Tokito Oda will be hoping to take the reins from Kunieda as he makes his Paralympic debut at 18 years old.
Also watch out for athletes from hosts France who are targeting 20 gold medals in Paris to upgrade from the 11 gold they earned at Tokyo 2020. The hosts are hoping one of these medals will come in blind football where they aim to upset Brazil’s unbeaten record that stretches back to the first blind football tournament at Athens 2004.
While Brazilian footballers will be trying to stay at the top, Australian wheelchair rugby players are hoping to return to the podium after a disappointing fourth place finish at Tokyo 2020. This result broke their streak of consecutive Paralympic finals appearances dating back to Beijing 2008.
Paralympic Games Paris 2024: Full schedule
The Paralympic Games Paris 2024 take place from 28 August to 8 September. The first competition day of Paris 2024 will see action in 11 of the 22 sports on the programme, including medal events in Para cycling track, Para swimming, Para table tennis and Para taekwondo. The opening weekend will be even busier with 17 sports on the agenda.
Find the full schedule for the 11 competition days here.
Paralympic Games Paris 2024: How to watch live
Paris 2024 will be the first Paralympic Games to have live coverage of each of the 22 featured sports.
France Television is offering unprecedented 24-hour broadcasts of their home Paralympics. A full list of broadcasters that are showing Games action in other countries can be seen here.
Some of the sports action will also be available on the Paralympics YouTube channel and the International Paralympic Committee website, with geographical restrictions.