With an explosion of fireworks, laser beams, breakdance and a thumping set by the giants of French electronica, France bid goodbye to the Paralympic Games on Sunday night with the biggest party it had ever thrown.
The feelgood summer of athletic achievement in Paris had turned crowds hoarse from so much cheering and for ever changed the nation’s attitude to sport and disability, and now Parisians were desperately sad to say goodbye to it all.
But France wanted one last frenzied night of celebration and the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis was transformed into a massive electronica dance party with some of the world’s top elite para athletes doing the conga around the stadium on an athletics track where days before records were being broken.
The Paris Games organisers said they wanted the Paralympics closing ceremony to “show we know how to party” – as if anyone still had any doubt that the French capital liked letting its hair down.
Jean-Michel Jarre, France’s godfather of synthesisers and stadium laser shows, headed a riotous showcase of France electro dance amid flashing light-shows, hundreds of crisscrossing laser beams and walls of flames on stage. The “French Touch” extravaganza culminated in the star DJ Martin Solveig playing Daft Punk’s One More Time amid a stage full of dancing para athletes, giant mascots bobbing in sequin skirts and a volley of hundreds of fireworks.
Earlier, the French Republican Guard military band had blasted out Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive as para athletes paraded with their countries’ flags.
In a nod to its controversial decision to introduce breakdance to the Olympics, Paris also signed off with a staggering breakdance performance by many disabled dancers that drew gasps from the para athletes watching.
The big surprise of the night – and one of the best musical performances – was the blind Malian singers Amadou and Mariam performing a stunning rendition of Serge Gainsbourg’s anthem about goodbyes, Je Suis Venu te Dire que Je M’en Vais, at the base of the ballon-borne Paralympic flame, just as it was extinguished. Another spine-tingling moment was a new take on the French national anthem. Of all the many versions of La Marseillaise played since the Olympic Games began in July, Sunday night’s was for sure the most moving: a solo, musical rendition by the acclaimed disabled French trumpeter André Feydy.
“The most spectacular Paralympic Games ever,” said Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee, in conclusion to 12 heady days in Paris which saw China top the medals table, with Great Britain second and the US in third place, just as Los Angeles takes over the Olympic and Paralympic Games for 2028.
With more competing countries than ever before, a record 169 delegations, more women and more global coverage, Paris 2024 had set a new benchmark for the Paralympic Games, said Parsons. He thanked French crowds for their huge turnout and roof-raising support. “For a country famous for its fashion and food, France is now famous for its fans,” he said, to raucous screams from more than 60,000 spectators at the Stade de France. Now it was time that “appreciation and applause must be followed by acceptance and action”, he said. It was time to break down barriers in society outside the playing field – from education to employment, government and entertainment.
For French organisers, the celebration was all the merrier given the final figures on tickets. Paris 2024 sold a record 12m tickets for the Olympics and Paralympics combined, beating the Games record previously set by London 2012. This included 9.5m tickets sold for the Paris Olympics and 2.5m for the Paris Paralympics. In 2012, London organisers had set the record for the Paralympics, with 2.7m tickets sold, but only 8.2m were sold for the Olympics.
In keeping with the torrential downpour of rain that soaked the Olympics opening ceremony along the River Seine back in July, the skies opened for the end of the Paralympics, utterly drenching the athletes who valiantly danced to the music as flames warmed the occasion by constantly bursting into the sky from the stage.
The showcase of decades of French dance music and electronica – one of France’s biggest cultural exports – ranged from Étienne de Crécy to Kavinsky, Kittin and Kungs as thousands of spectators danced in their seats. It was a fitting send-off for Paris’s drive to bring younger audiences to the Paralympics.
Ali Stroker, the first actor who used a wheelchair to appear on a Broadway stage, sang the US national anthem as Paris handed over to Los Angeles 2028.
Tony Estanguet, the three-time Olympic canoe champion who is the Paris Olympics’ chief organiser, said the Paris Paralympics “have made us better people”.
He said the Paralympic Games were about “extraordinary encounters that leave a permanent mark” and no one in France wanted them to end.
He said to the Paralympians gathered in the stadium: “Thanks to you, everyone has seen what an inclusive world looks like. You have launched the Paralympic revolution and now there is no turning back.”
