Two weeks after French swimming star Léon Marchand put out the Olympic flame signaling the end of the Paris Olympics, the focus now shifts to the Paralympic Games. The Paralympic flame will be ignited on Saturday in Stoke Mandeville, a village in northwest London known as the birthplace of the Paralympics. The flame’s journey will take it from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean, through the Pyrenees to the Alps, culminating in Paris during the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games.
The lighting ceremony for the Paralympic Heritage Flame will take place in Buckinghamshire, where the Stoke Mandeville Games were first held in 1948, initiated by Ludwig Guttmann, a neurosurgeon who introduced competitive sports to help patients with spinal injuries. The legacy of these games led to the first Paralympic Games in Rome in 1960, with the Heritage Flame ceremony starting prior to the 2012 London Paralympics.
Similar to the Olympic flame’s journey from Greece to France via the Channel Tunnel, the Paralympic flame will also traverse the tunnel carried by 24 British athletes who will pass it to 24 French athletes in Calais. The flame will then be used to light 12 torches representing the 11 days of competition and the opening ceremony.
The Paralympic torchbearers, including former Paralympians, young para athletes, volunteers, innovators, and caregivers, will carry the flame to 50 cities in France, promoting inclusion in sports and raising awareness about living with disabilities. The relay will emphasize para sport infrastructure and innovation, highlighting places that support para sports and famous Paralympians’ hometowns.
The Paralympic flame will culminate in Paris with the lighting of a unique cauldron attached to a hot-air balloon that will soar above the city during the 11 days of competition. This cauldron, the first in Olympic history to operate without fossil fuels, will illuminate the Tuileries gardens each evening during the Paralympics, symbolizing unity and celebration in the spirit of the Games.
