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Just weeks after hosting the Olympics, Paris inaugurated the 2024 Paralympics on Wednesday with a nearly four-hour-long opening ceremony in the heart of the city.
Against the backdrop of a setting sun, thousands of athletes paraded down the famed Champs-Elysees avenue to Place de la Concorde in central Paris where French President Emmanuel Macron officially declared the Paralympic Games open.
About 50,000 people watched the ceremony in stands built around the iconic square, which is the biggest in Paris and is visible from afar because of its ancient Egyptian Obelisk. Accessibility for athletes in wheelchairs was facilitated with strips of asphalt laid along the avenue and placed over the square.
More than 4,000 athletes with physical, visual and intellectual impairments will compete in 22 sports from Thursday until Sept. 8. Organizers say more than 2 million of the 2.8 million tickets have been sold for the various Paralympic events.
WATCH | Paralympic cauldron lit as Games get underway:
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