PARIS (AP) — Just weeks after hosting the Olympics, Paris began the final chapter of its summer of sports Wednesday with the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games.

Against the backdrop of a setting sun, thousands of athletes paraded down the famed Champs-Elysées avenue to Place de la Concorde in central Paris.

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.

Under the gaze of French President Emmanuel Macron, International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons, fighter planes flew overhead, leaving red-white-and blue vapors in the colors of the French national flag, before the delegations entered the square in alphabetical order.

Some delegations were huge — more than 250 athletes from Brazil — and some were tiny — less than a handful from Barbados and just three from Myanmar.

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Although Wednesday night’s show started at 8 p.m. local time, fans had gathered hours earlier under a scorching sun to get top spots along the way. As performers entertained the crowd on stage, volunteers danced alongside Paralympians as they waved their national flags and the sky gave off a postcard-perfect orange glow.

Organizers had promised another spectacular show to open the Games. Once again it was held outside of a stadium, but unlike the rain-soaked Olympic opening ceremony on July 26, which featured a boat parade on the Seine River, the Paralympic ceremony was exclusively on land.

Organizers say more than 2 million of the 2.8 million tickets have been sold for the various Paralympic events.

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The first medals handed out on Thursday will be in taekwondo, table tennis, swimming and track cycling. Athletes are grouped by impairment levels to ensure as level a playing field as possible. Only two sports, goalball and boccia, don’t have an Olympic equivalent.

Parsons said that the big crowds expected in Paris will mean a lot to the athletes, many of whom competed in front of empty stands at the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parsons added that the ceremony would be the city’s way of welcoming Paralympic athletes with a “gigantic hug.”

The closing ceremony will be held at Stade de France, the national stadium.

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AP Paralympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paralympic-games

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