A great first to succeed. For the first time in its history, France will host the Paralympic Games from August 28, 2024 until September 8. With a strong ambition, summed up by Michaël Aloïsio, the general delegate of Paris 2024: “We want France to wake up different at the end of the 11 days of competition. We want to take on a whole country. You have to succeed in interesting and changing the perception of people who are not disabled. These Games are a unique opportunity to make visible the reality of disability in our country and to associate it with notions as positive as those of sport, emotion, performance.” Hence this concept put forward for this D-1 year before the start of the festivities: the Paralympics presented as being “the return match” of the Olympic Games.
Like a hyphen between the two, a symbol of the strong will of the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee (OCOG) to place them on the same line. “All our thinking is based on a vision of the Olympic and Paralympic Games as being the same project, the same ambition”, recalls Julie Matikhine, Brand Director at Paris 2024. “The concept is similar, the venues for the events will be the same. in many disciplines, the logos are the same, the mascots too… There is the same requirement of creativity and meaning for both. The Games, whether Olympic or Paralympic, convey the same magic, the same spectacle. The Paralympics should not be seen as a second Olympic Games. This is another thing. They have a spring of their own, with disciplines that are not quite the same, athletes who are also not quite the same. So there is a uniqueness and at the same time you have to give space to what makes their difference, with another sensitivity.
Starting with the ticket office, which will be officially launched on October 9th. With, of course, a pricing policy different from that implemented for the Olympic Games, which had not failed to raise a certain number of criticisms as to the amount of the prices charged. With 80% of tickets at 50 euros or less, and a maximum price of 75 euros (excluding premium tickets with associated services), the bill should be much lower for spectators. Especially since two offers will complete this unit sale (no pack will be available). Namely a “discovery pass” at 24 euros allowing, over one day, to attend several sessions on two major sites: Paris-Centre comprising the Grand Palais (armchair fencing and para taekwondo), the Arena du Champ-de- Mars (para judo and wheelchair rugby), Stade Tour Eiffel (blind football) and Les Invalides (para archery), and the Paris-Sud area to discover boccia, goaball and para table tennis. Or also a family offer allowing, for the purchase of two standard tickets, to be able to buy in addition two tickets at 10 euros for children under 12 years old.
The goal: to sell the 2.8 million tickets and do better than Rio, while surfing on the (relative) popular success of the last World Para Athletics Championships where more than 100,000 tickets had been sold, without filling up. For the organizers, clearly, the ticketing challenge will be one of the most important. Hence the interest of organizing, on October 8, a 2nd edition of the Paralympic day. The Place de la République in Paris will succeed that of the Bastille to celebrate parasport and allow the general public to open up to the different disciplines and champions still too little known. “There is a strong stake in pedagogy and media coverage”, recalled Michaël Aloïsio. The proof that, perhaps even more than for the Olympic Games, this D-1 year already marks the start of the Paralympics and this formidable challenge that awaits Paris 2024.
