How To Watch The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games

Back in 1960, Rome hosted the world’s first ever Paralympic Games, with 400 athletes from 23 countries competing. Until 1976, only athletes in wheelchairs could compete but, since then, the Games have been open to more athletes, with people with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness and cerebral palsy able to compete today. Now in its 17th edition, the Paralympics are about to take over Paris, with a whopping 549 events across 22 sports. Here’s everything to expect from the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, plus how to watch from the UK.

Paris 2024 Paralympic Games: When, Where & How To Watch

Paris 2024 Olympic Village

The Opening Ceremony

First thing’s first: like the Olympics, the Paralympics is officially declared open with the Opening Ceremony. This time, it will take place on 28 August, and like the Olympics opening ceremony at the end of July, it will not take place in an arena but outside in the city at the bottom of the Champs-Elysées and Place de la Concorde. Around 4,400 athletes are expected to take part in the Parade of Nations, with around 220 people representing Team GB.

‘While the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony will be the first of its kind, its monumental and popular concept is, for me, first and foremost a magnificent source of inspiration,’ Thomas Jolly, artistic director for the ceremonies said. ‘From the Champs-Elysées to Place de la Concorde, I look forward to creating this spectacle that will transform the heart of Paris, with performances that have never been seen before. A spectacle that will showcase the Paralympic athletes and the values that they embody. A spectacle that will unite spectators and television audiences worldwide around the unique spirit of the Paralympic Games.’

What Sports Are At The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games?

Twenty-two sports will be competed at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, with no changes since Tokyo 2020. They are:

• Archery
• Athletics
• Badminton
• Boccia
• Cycling (road & track)
• Equestrian
• Football 5-a-side
• Goalball
• Judo
• Paracanoe
• Paratriathlon
• Powerlifting
• Rowing
• Shooting
• Sitting volleyball
• Swimming
• Table tennis
• Taekwondo
• Wheelchair basketball
• Wheelchair fencing
• Wheelchair rugby
• Wheelchair tennis

Team GB will compete in every event apart from blind football, goalball and sitting volleyball.

When Are The Paralympics?

The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will take place from 28 August, with events lasting until 8 September 2024.

Where?

All of the events in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will be held in and around Paris, with local suburbs Saint-Denis, Versailles and Vaires-sur-Marne all involved. Key venues include:

• Stade de France (closing ceremony, athletics)
• Paris La Defense Arena (swimming)
• Porte de la Chapelle Arena (badminton, powerlifting)
• Clichy-sous-Bois (road cycling)
• North Paris Arena (sitting volleyball)
• Parc Georges Valbon – La Courneuve (para marathon start)
• Bercy Arena (wheelchair basketball)
• Grand Palais Éphémère (judo, wheelchair rugby)
• Eiffel Tower Stadium (football five a side)
• Les Invalides (archery, para marathon finish)
• Grand Palais (taekwondo, wheelchair fencing)
• Pont Alexandre III (triathlon)
• Stade Roland Garros (wheelchair tennis)
• South Paris Arena (boccia, table tennis, goalball)
• Gardens of the Palace of Versailles (para equestrian, dressage)
• National Olympic Nautical Stadium of Île-de-France (para canoe, para rowing)
• Vélodrome de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (track cycling)
• National Shooting Centre (shooting)

Where Did The Paralympics Start?

The first Paralympic Games took place in Rome, Italy in 1960 – but the Games have their origins in a hospital for war veterans just outside London. Sixty kilometres north of London, Stoke Mandeville is known as the birthplace of the Paralympics, and it is here that the torch is lit every four years ahead of the relay.

In 1948, London played host to its second Olympic Games, the first Games after the outbreak of WWII. As athletes gathered in the UK capital from across the globe, German neurologist Sir Ludwig Guttman planned a sport competition for his paraplegic patients, all WWII veterans, in Stoke Mandeville. It began as a way to rehabilitate the veterans more quickly, and 16 people in wheelchairs, all with spinal cord injuries, faced off in archery and netball. But Guttman had unknowingly sparked a new sporting movement.

Jump forward to 1952, and the first International Stoke Mandeville Games were held, as Dutch veterans made the trip to the UK to compete against British teams. The Games were held every year until 1960, when the Stoke Mandeville Games were first held overseas: in Rome. This is considered the first Paralympic Games, which returned in 1964 in Tokyo, 1968 in Tel Aviv, 1972 in Heidelberg, and every four years alongside the Olympic Games ever since.

Who Started The Paralympics?

Sir Ludwig Guttman is widely credited for starting the Paralympics. In 1948, he invented the Stoke Mandeville Games for British WWII veterans, which transformed into the Paralympics by 1960.

Are The 2024 Paralympics On TV?

Yes: the Paralympics will be exclusively aired on Channel 4 in the UK once more, with more than 1,300 hours of coverage scheduled. You can also watch and/or catch up at channel4.com, or stream videos on Channel 4’s YouTube channel.

The BBC has also confirmed it will air an evening highlights show most evenings during the Games.

Over in the US, the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will be aired on NBC, CNBC and USA Network, and be available to stream on Peacock.