Getting ready for the Paris 2024 Paralympics

The Paris 2024 Paralympics opening ceremony will take place on 28 August, followed by 11 days of competition to 8 September. A total of 4,400 Paralympic athletes will take part in 22 sports in 549 events in 18 competition venues across France.

Unlike the part-time, on-call, intermittent volunteer work that I had during the Olympics, I’ll be working full-time, frontline, and the weekends for the Paralympics at the Grand Palais venue – the Grand Palace.

The Grand Palais will host three disciplines, two inside: 1) Para Taekwondo and 2) Wheelchair Fencing, with one outside: 3) Para Triathlon, which begins and ends on the bridge outside the Grand Palais. I will have access to all three events.

There will be 1,317 volunteers of 86 nationalities – 703 of them will work inside the Grand Palais, 215 will work outside, and 399 (including me) will be inside and outside. On Monday 26 August the volunteers working at the Grand Palais had venue training.

I’ll be working in the Press Operations Team with a group of 57 volunteers. Of that 57, a handful (including me) will be in the Tribune Press Box – the best seats in the venue to watch the competition – assisting the accredited press, international officials, or any of the officials from the 39 member federations.

Workers are at the venue finalizing the stage, technology, equipment, and signage as they configure the venue to cater for the Paralympics.

More photos in my Paris blog article or in my Substack site.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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Martina Nicolls is an Australian author and international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, and foreign aid audits and evaluations. She lives in Paris.

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