International Paralympic Committee (IPC) President Andrew Parsons said this Friday that security is the biggest challenge for organizers of the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
“The biggest concern we have to deal with is the issue of security, mainly the issue of the opening and closing ceremonies, which will take place outside the stadiums and in a less controlled environment,” the IPC president said on the sidelines of the conference. presentation of the book “The Right to Sports for Citizens with Disabilities” by Alexandre Miguel Mestre.
Andrew Parsons acknowledged that “the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have had an impact on sport” and added: “Some countries and organizations have tried to politicize sport.”
The leader of the Paralympic Committee believed that the Paris 2024 Games, which will be held from August 28 to September 8, “will be the most spectacular in history,” not only because they will again have an audience, but also because “there is no Olympic Park and installations scattered throughout the incredible city of Paris.”
Andrew Parsons suggested that the IPC’s goal was to “sell all tickets before the opening ceremony, that’s almost three million tickets” and addressed the problem of television broadcasts.
“At the Tokyo 2020 Games [realizados em 2021] We have accumulated an audience of 4.1 billion people, we want to break this record in Paris, which shows that the influence of the Games will be greater not only in France, but also in the world,” he suggested.
The IPC President highlighted the investments that the French government is making in public spaces in the accessibility zone and recalled that “the municipal government is investing 125 million euros to make urban surface transport more accessible.”
Parsons believed that the investment, coupled with other programs that prepare local clubs to welcome people with disabilities, would leave a legacy and was convinced: “In three, four, 10 years, French society will be more inclusive than expected, but also from its infrastructure.”
With just over 100 days to go until the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, which will bring together more than 4,000 athletes, Andrew Parsons stressed the importance of inclusive sport and assured that the main goal of the IPSC is that “the legacy of the Games is not limited solely to the Parisian, or the Frenchman.” .
“We want, especially through television broadcasting, that everything that happens in Paris has a practical effect in the world and changes the lives of people with disabilities,” he concluded.