Paris 2024: IPC President: “We want these Games to change lives”
We caught up with International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons ahead of the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony on 28 August 28 Aug 2024
The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will open on 28 August, featuring around 4,400 athletes from around the world and making history as the first summer Paralympics in France.
Ahead of the start of the Games, we caught up with International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons to ask about what he’s looks forward to at these Games.
IPC: How excited are you for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games to finally begin?
AP: I'm super excited for what's about to begin at the Opening Ceremony. Athletes are stronger than ever before. We have incredible venues close to iconic settings. The atmosphere has been fantastic. I'm very excited. I think these Games are going to be the most spectacular Games ever.
In my short time in Paris, I have seen the excitement building, both in the city and in the Athletes’ Village. I think the most interesting part is when you speak with people who are not directly related to the Games, and when they see your accreditation or your IPC shirt, they say, ‘Oh, are you from the Paralympics?’
And we say yes, and they tell us, ‘We want more. We want to feel the same emotion we felt during the Olympics. We want this party to go on.’
So of course, everyone is excited in the Paralympic Village, but to me, walking around Paris and feeling the excitement of the Parisians is just amazing.
IPC: What can we expect from the Opening Ceremony?
AP: It's the first Opening Ceremony outside of a stadium, so I'm anxious to see how it’s going to work. During the athletes’ parade, they come in through the Champs-Elysees and the Place de la Concorde – it’s like the City of Paris is embracing them, it’s giving them a big hug. Because it’s at the very heart of the city, the most famous avenue in the world, I think this is the feeling that we want the athletes to feel.
The city is welcoming them. Paris is embracing the Paralympic Movement.
IPC: What are you personally looking forward to seeing the most while you are here in Paris?
AP: What I want at the end of these Games, we want to look back and have this feeling that these Games were fantastic. People put on their best performances in the field of play and out of the field of play.
But what we want to see is also the transformational aspect of the Paralympic Movement. We want to feel that these Games changed lives of people in the field of play, people on the stands, and people watching it around the world.
IPC: What are the key long-term benefits that hosting the Paralympic Games have on the City of Paris?
AP: We have seen incredible legacy already, because we have seen some programmes already being implemented in the country.
We saw interventions and the transport system here in Paris, so and these are very important tangible legacies. I believe the intangible legacies will be as strong as the tangible ones, in the sense that changing the perception of French population towards persons with disability, especially the young generations, the kids who are still in school. They are being involved in school programmes.
They will come to the Games. They will see our athletes, and they will have a different attitude towards persons with disability and a different attitude towards diversity in general.
IPC: Can you share a message to athletes?
AP: To every Paralympian here in Paris, I wish you have the best possible experience here. That the journey from classification to qualification, to arriving at the Paralympic Village will be an unforgettable experience. Make the most out of it.
Play fair, enjoy, make friends, and leave everything that you have on the field of play. We will be on the stands, cheering for you.
IPC: This will be the first time Paris hosts the Paralympic Games. Do you have a message to all the Paralympic fans around the world?
AP: Well, buy tickets because it’s an opportunity of a lifetime. Incredible sport, sport like never before, but sport that changes the world. Exciting, vibrant, surprising sport with incredible performances, but at the same time, the athletes know that what is happening in the field of play helps make for a more inclusive society.
