PARALYMPIC TORCH RELAY ROUTE

Paris 2024 presents the route for the Paralympic Torch Relay sponsored by Coca-Cola, Banques Populaires and Caisses d’Epargne, which will run from 25 to 28 August 2024. This Relay will mark the start of the encore for Paris 2024: the first Summer Paralympic Games to be held in France.

THE PARALYMPIC GAMES KICKOFF

The flame for the Paralympic Games will be lit shortly after the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games in Stoke Mandeville, the historic birthplace of Paralympic sport. The Paralympic Torch Relay will kick off the encore and the Paralympic celebrations.

The Paris 2024 Paralympic Torch Relay will also be known as the ‘Forerunners Relay’. These Forerunners are people who live and breathe sport each day, people who are invested in the Paris 2024 Games, and people who are looking forward to welcoming and experiencing them. The Forerunners will rekindle the celebratory spirit of the Games and officially open the Paralympic celebrations of Paris 2024.

Over the course of four days from 25 to 28 August 2024, some 1,000 Forerunners will carry the Paralympic flame to 50 cities throughout France. In doing so, they will generate interest in the upcoming Paralympics with a message full of enthusiasm: ‘The Games are back!’

Founding energy: Stoke Mandeville

The Paralympic flame will be lit in Stoke Mandeville, England—the historic birthplace of Paralympic sport. On 29 July 1948—the day of the Opening Ceremony of the London 1948 Olympic Games—German neurologist Sir Ludwig Guttmann organised the first sports competition for World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries to help with their rehabilitation at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. Dr. Guttman named the contest, which consisted of a wheelchair archery competition for 16 injured service members, the Stoke Mandeville Games.

After being lit in Stoke Mandeville, the flame will cross the sea like its Olympic twin, but this time via the Channel Tunnel, marking the start of a legendary relay. 24 British athletes will symbolically embark on the journey through the tunnel and will be joined halfway between the United Kingdom and France by 24 French athletes to hand over the flame and the energy of the Games.

Multiplied energy

Unlike the Olympic flame, several Paralympic flames can shine alongside one another, reflecting the unique features of the Paralympic movement. When it arrives on the French coast in Calais, the flame that was ignited in Stoke Mandeville will be split into 12 separate flames that will journey to light up the whole of France. They will symbolise the energy of the 12 days of the first Summer Paralympic Games to be held in France, with the cauldron to be lit on 28 August 2024, followed by 11 days of competition.

Communicative energy

Reflecting the unique emotions of a return match or an encore, the Paralympic Torch Relay will be exceptionally intense. The 12 flames will each follow their own route, passing through the heart of various regions before converging in Île-de France and becoming one again in Paris. They will head out to meet communities in all the regions across France, calling on people to get involved. All the Forerunners, who will have carried the Paralympic flame at various points, will symbolically unite in Paris before lighting the cauldron during the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games on 28 August 2024.

Paris 2024 Paralympic Torch Relay to finish with a flourish in Paris

For the first time in history, the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games will be held outside the confines of a stadium; instead, the celebrations will take place at the heart of the French capital, from the Champs-Elysées to Place de la Concorde. Paris will be transformed into a huge Para sports ground. Paris’ world-renowned sports venues and iconic monuments will be the backdrop for the performances by the Paralympic athletes. Paris will truly be the nerve centre of the Paralympic Games.

BUILDING THE ROUTE

The Paralympic Torch Relay will highlight communities that are committed to promoting inclusion in sport and building awareness of disabilities, communities that have a strong focus on sport and are actively engaged in the Games, and others that stand out through their unique histories.

Promoting access to universal sport

In consultation with the French Paralympic and Sports Committee (CPSF), Paris 2024 has identified cities that are committed to developing Para sports.

The flame will visit places that have seen famous Para athletes grow up, such as Lorient, which is home to double Paralympic sailing gold medallist Damien Seguin, and Blois, which has a sports complex named after its Paralympic champion Marie-Amélie Le Fur.

The Torch Relay will offer opportunities to highlight the investments made in innovative infrastructures, such as Châlons-en-Champagne, which has the only gymnasium in France designed to facilitate access to sport for people with intellectual disabilities. Highly active in this field, the city of Vichy hosted the event marking the 500-day countdown to the Paralympic Games and the Virtus Global Games in June 2023 for high-level athletes with physical or mental disabilities.

Vichy, like the city of Laon, is rolling out the Club Inclusif programme, enabling several of its clubs to benefit from sessions to build awareness of how to welcome Para athletes. Bobigny in Seine Saint-Denis and its future Para sports hub PRISME will also be in the spotlight.

The Relay will stop in the cities that actively support participation in sport for all. Rouen, Chartres, and Troyes offer a wide range of disciplines, from sledge hockey to Para tennis, Para triathlon, adapted baseball and Para climbing.

Promoting the commitment made by cities to sport and the Games

The flame will enjoy a brief stay in Lyon, which will host 11 football matches during the Games, and at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, which will also be a Paris 2024 competition venue, as well as in Chambly, which has three outstanding sports facilities adapted for Para sports and will be one of the Pre-Games training camp locations alongside Deauville and Antibes. Antibes is the only French city to be twinned with Olympia, the ancient birthplace of the Olympic Games. 

The Relay will also make a stop in Montpellier, known as the city of urban sports and the host of the third annual Terre de Jeux forum. Set up in 2019, this programme offers opportunities for communities throughout France to get involved in the organisation of Paris 2024 and is relaunching the focus on sport across the country. The buzz generated from the Relay will reach all the way to Moselle and Amnéville, which will join in the celebrations with its dedicated Club 2024 Games celebration venue.

Promoting the memory of history and heritage

The Torch Relay route will include many of the exceptional panoramas that France is renowned for. It will amplify historic architectural masterpieces such as the Napoleonic city of La Roche-sur-Yon; Arras’ Grand Place, surrounded by majestic Baroque and Flemish facades; and the Cathedral districts in Limoges and Chartres. Often referred to as the ‘Capital of Europe’, Strasbourg will also be in the limelight.

The Relay will end its journey in central Paris, making sure to feature the City of Lights’ historical treasures, including the Nation-République-Bastille-Hôtel de Ville corridor, Invalides, and the Manufacture des Gobelins.

To pay tribute to the history of France, a flame will be lit in the capital at the start of the Relay on 25 August, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of Paris during World War II.

TEAM RELAYS

To celebrate the different aspects of Para sports throughout France

Around 200 of the 1,000 Paralympic torchbearers will take part in six team relays, each of which will promote one aspect of Para sports.

Each relay will involve 24 people: a relay made up of key volunteers from the Paralympic federations, a relay of young Para athletes, two relays with former Paralympians, a relay of people involved in innovative actions, such as the programmes deployed or supported with the CPSF (Impact 2024), and a relay bringing together people who dedicate their lives to others with disabilities and people who work each day in the non-profit sector to help advance the rights of carers.

• The “Paralympic Movement Volunteers” Relay: Made up of key volunteers from the Paralympic federations.
• The “Young Para Athletes” Relay: They are the future of the French Paralympic team.
• The “Former Paralympians” Relay: To pay tribute to their achievements in the world of sport and ensure their visibility.
• The “Innovative Actions” Relay: To display the people and structures that are involved in innovative actions, such as the programmes deployed or supported with the CPSF (Impact 2024).
• The “Associations and Caregivers” Relay: made up of people who dedicate their lives to others with disabilities and people who work each day in the non-profit sector to help advance the rights of carers.

The Official Sponsors—Coca-Cola and the BPCE Group—will also help select participants for the Team Relays.

THE TORCHBEARER UNIFORM

The 11,000 torchbearers (10,000 Olympic torchbearers and 1,000 Paralympic torchbearers) will wear the same uniform designed by Decathlon, an Official Partner of Paris 2024. The only difference will be the rings on the uniforms of the Olympic torchbearers and the agitos on those of the Paralympic torchbearers. The uniforms will be unisex and white, symbolising peace, unity, and fraternity among nations, which are core values of both Olympism and Paralympism.