All you need to know about the Paralympic Games

Where will the sport be played? What is a classification? And what time will the action be on?

Thu, 29 Aug, 2024 - 07:46

Paul MacInnes, Paris

What are the Paralympic Games?

Eleven days of elite competition across 22 sports. With no fewer than 549 medals at stake, 4,400 athletes will be taking part from 128 different nations, each of them with a physical or cognitive disability.

Where will the sport be played?

A number of the venues you fell in love with earlier in the summer are set to return, with 18 of the 35 Olympic locations being repurposed for the Paralympics.

The Stade de France and La Défense Arena will once again host athletics and swimming, respectively, and cycling will return to the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome.

The sand has been removed from the Eiffel Tower stadium so that blind football can replace beach volleyball. The only event to be held outside the French capital will be the para-shooting in Châteauroux.

What is a ‘classification’?

One significant feature of disability sport is that athletes are selected for competition based on the nature and severity of their disability.

In order to ensure fair competition, all athletes must go through the classification process where they are assessed by technical and medical experts to ensure they are selected in an appropriate category.

This is one of the reasons why there are so many medals; there are dozens of different classifications, especially in track and field.

Classification can be the cause of huge disappointment, with athletes sometimes being excluded from competition because their impairment is not judged to be great enough.

It is also a political issue, with a debate over whether there should be more classifications in order to allow more inclusion, or fewer to enhance competitiveness.

What time will the action be on?

You have probably already adjusted your body clock to the challenges of consuming sport from the French capital and for those in the UK it’s not very hard (it’s an hour ahead). The sport will begin at 8.30am in the morning local time and end at 10.30pm.

What are the key events?

Much like the Olympics, the centrepiece of the Paralympic Games is the track and field programme. The competition begins on Friday 30 August, runs for nine days and produces medals every day. Both Saturdays are particularly stuffed, with 7 September boasting no fewer than 22 finals over its two sessions.

Other marquee events to look out for will be the wheelchair rugby final on Monday 2 September and finals day in the para-rowing at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium on Sunday 1 September.

Guardian