Why We Must Wait 2 Entire Weeks for the Paralympics to Begin

I don’t learn about you, however watching the 2024 Olympics closing ceremony felt like waking up from a two week-long trance throughout which I grew to become a boxing buff, canoeing connoisseur, and Ilona Maher tremendous fan. I laughed, I cried, after which cried some extra as I watched so many desires come true for tons of large athletes. Fortunately, we get to expertise 12 extra days of those particular moments when the 4,400 Paralympic athletes take the stage—however that’s not occurring for an additional couple of weeks. Why? It turns on the market are a number of causes for the delay between the Olympic and Paralympic video games, although they occur in precisely the identical place.

Traditionally, the two-week hole ensured that employees had time to make the Village and competitors areas extra accessible for the hundreds of athletes (and their help canines!) who all have various disabilities, Craig Spence, chief model and communications officer of the Worldwide Paralympic Committee, tells SELF. However due to progress in incapacity consciousness and inclusion, every part is “created with accessibility in thoughts for each the Olympic and Paralympic Video games, so all of the ramps and tactile flooring are there from the beginning.” In truth, nothing must be added or modified to make the area extra inclusive.

Nonetheless, a variety of the competitors venues do have to be reconfigured for Paralympic-specific sports activities, Spence says. For instance, some goalball video games—a sport for visually impaired gamers that entails throwing a ball with bells right into a cage—will likely be held in the identical place the place among the Olympic handball courts had been, that are about double the scale. Equally, volleyball courts are bigger than these for sitting volleyball, which is sort of the identical recreation however performed with a decrease web whereas seated on the ground. (Though this 12 months, these sports activities are held in several areas, so it’s a non-issue.)

Plus, the realm that held the Olympic skateboard, breaking, and 3×3 basketball occasions must be fully dismantled, eliminated, and rebuilt to host the Paralympic opening ceremony on August 28, Spence says. And the well-known Olympic Rings must be eliminated and changed with the Paralympic Agitos, which suggests “I transfer” in Latin and is made up of three waves.