On August 30, Craig Spence still can’t believe it. The day before, the spokesman for the International Paralympic Committee confessed to having lived in the Grand Palais “the most moving sporting moment of [sa] life “ in the face of the exploits of Afghan Zakia Khudadadi, bronze medallist in para taekwondo wearing the colours of the refugee team. To hear her say that the prestige of the place has nothing to do with it. “The Grand Palais site is truly extraordinary”the Briton amazed the press.
Craig Spence is not the only one who thinks so. The palace, with its Beaux-Arts architecture dating back to 1900, is already fully booked for the para-taekwondo and armchair fencing tournaments that will be held there one after the other. During the Olympic fortnight, the majestic hall, with its usual welcoming atmosphere, was already packed with fans shouting their joy at supporting the French athletes.
Les Invalides, the Eiffel Tower, the Palace of Versailles… Like the Grand Palais, all the iconic venues for these Paris Games are sold out for the Paralympic Games. “The magic of the place has worked”the organizers want to believe.
It is hard to argue with them, as images of fencers descending the main staircase, an Art Nouveau jewel with its iron scrolls, have travelled around the world and impressed retinas. Like archery in front of the golden dome of the Invalides, beach volleyball and blind football at the foot of the Eiffel Tower at dusk, or even cyclists climbing the busy Rue Lepic, reminiscent of a painting by Claude Monet, the competitions enhanced Parisian heritage.
Two structuring axes
The idea of transforming the capital’s monuments into Olympic and Paralympic venues arose from the application file. “The Games at the service of Seine-Saint-Denis and Paris at the service of the Games”The organisers boasted ten years ago. Paris 2024 thus identifies two structural axes: the line from the Arc de La Défense to the Obelisk of Concorde and the Seine, with large adjoining parks (Champ-de-Mars, Invalides, etc.) that can host events. “We knew we were going to have these iconic sites, so very quickly we said, ‘What can we put there? ’ And then, ‘How can we magnify this place through sport? ’”says Etienne Thobois, Director General of the Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (COJOP), who has been at the heart of the project since its inception.
The equation is not simple, especially since Olympic disciplines always operate in pairs for reasons of calendar and venue configuration: fencing with taekwondo, judo with wrestling, badminton with rhythmic gymnastics, for example.
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