Paralympic Village almost ready as 2024 Games near in Paris

Preparations at the Paralympic Village for the upcoming 2024 Paris Games are in full swing, as the village is set to open for the arrivals of participating athletes on Wednesday.

"All the Paralympic village was actually already prepared," Laurent Michaud, Director of the Olympic and Paralympic Villages said. "So to welcome the athletes Paralympic, before we created the Olympic Village. So all the public spaces are ready to welcome them, because it was made also for the legacy for after the Games. And so, we only had to make some changes in a few services regarding mobility, for example, in installing more micromobility services and device so that, they will have a better possibility to move inside the village, even if they are in a wheelchair."

The 2024 Paralympic Games will begin on August 28 and end on September 8. About 4,400 athletes from 160 nations and regions will compete in 549 events across 22 sports.

"What is the most, what is just amazing like Disneyland world is everything take care of the accessibility content before with many examples," said Ludivine Munos, Paralympic Integration Manager Paris 2024 and former Paralympic athlete. "If you are in the apartment, you can go directly outside without, a ramp. You can go with your wheelchair. And in most and everything is accessible in the dining hall, you have a different solution to put your plate in the in the table."

Ottobock, a partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, has established a repair center within the village to service prostheses, wheelchairs, and orthoses. The center expects to carry out approximately 2,000 repairs over the course of the Games, averaging about 200 repairs per day.

Spanning an area equivalent to 70 football pitches, the Paralympic Village will offer a wide range of amenities, including a large refectory with various food stations, a vast sports hall, training fields for numerous sports, a polyclinic, prayer rooms, and an anti-doping center.

(With input from agencies)