It is just over two weeks since the curtain came down on a magical Olympic games in Paris. Now the French capital is ready to open its arms again to welcome the Paralympics, another global sporting festival that will light up the final weeks of summer. Over 4,400 athletes will participate in Wednesday’s opening ceremony along the Champs-Élysées with the same hopes and dreams as the Olympic competitors a few weeks ago. They will have shared the same highs and lows, tough training regimes and dedication in preparing for the ultimate test in their sports.
And in many cases the obstacles Paralympian athletes have overcome are more challenging than their Olympian counterparts. Apart from dealing with disability, they very often face financial and sponsorship struggles. Combined with the arduous process of reaching the highest levels in their sports, overcoming these issues marks them out as exceptional.
Ever since the inaugural games in Rome in 1960, the Paralympics have flourished. Those games may have only drawn 400 athletes from 23 countries competing in eight sports but they laid the foundation for a movement that has shown extraordinary growth over the past 64 years. Irish participation has mirrored that growth from the five athletes who took part in the Rome games to the 35 who will represent the country in Paris. This year para athletes will compete in 549 medal events across 22 sports. One of the key elements of that expansion has been running the games in parallel to the Olympics, allowing para athletes to compete in the same magnificent stadiums and arenas that spectators and TV viewers have grown familiar with through the Olympics.
One of the aims of the Paralympic movement is to showcase how sport can advance social inclusion and redefine how society views people with disability. The inspirational athletes who will engage the world over the next 10 days are ambassadors for change. That extra responsibility should rest easy on the shoulders of some of the world’s greatest athletes. We will all be privileged to watch.