Paralympic athletes keep the flame of the birthplace of the Games alive in England

Two weeks after French swimmer Leon Marchand extinguished the Olympic flame that ended the Paris Olympics, attention now turns to his Paralympic rival.

On Saturday, British Paralympians Helen Rainsford and Gregor Ewan lit the flame in Stoke Mandeville, a village northwest of London, considered the birthplace of the Paralympic Games.

The flame will now travel under the English Channel to France for a four-day relay from the shores of the Atlantic to the shores of the Mediterranean, from the Pyrenees to the Alps.

The journey will culminate on Wednesday during the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, with a unique Olympic cauldron attached to a hot air balloon that will fly over the French capital every night during the 11 days of competition.

The Paralympic Heritage Flame Lighting Ceremony was held in Buckinghamshire, where the Games were first held in Stoke Monte in 1948, to honor wheelchair athletes who had suffered spinal cord injuries during the Second World War.

The man behind the idea was Ludwig Goodman, a Jewish neurosurgeon who had fled Nazi Germany to work at the British Hospital in Stoke Mandeville. At the time, a spinal cord injury was considered a death sentence and patients were discouraged from moving. Goodman had patients sit and work their muscles, and thought of competition as a way to motivate them.

“I don’t know about you, but I definitely feel him here today,” said Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee, referring to Goodman.

The head of the Paris 2024 organizing committee, Tony Estangut, said the French capital was “proud and excited” to host the 17th edition for the first time in France, just two weeks after the Olympics.

“We are ready to make something unique and memorable for France and the whole world,” Estengood said.

The flame will cross the sea on Sunday just as its Olympic twin did when it arrived in France from Greece in May – but this time through the Channel Tunnel to mark the start of the Paralympic relay.

A group of 24 British athletes will embark on an underwater journey through a 50 kilometer long tunnel. Halfway down the route, they will hand the flame to 24 French athletes who will carry it ashore in Calais. The flame will be used to light 12 lamps to mark the 11 days of competition and the opening ceremony.

Once on French soil, the 12 branches of the flame will go in different directions to begin the opening of the Paris Olympic Games and try to rekindle enthusiasm for the Games.

The flame will be carried to 50 cities across the country to highlight communities committed to promoting inclusion in sports and raise awareness of disability living.

On Sunday, an extraordinary flame will be lit in Paris to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the French capital’s liberation from Nazi German occupation during World War II.

It is the first cauldron in the history of the Olympic Games to be lit without the use of fossil fuels. It uses water and electricity and is attached to the balloon. His first flight at the Olympics was spectacular.

Each day of the Paralympic Games, the cauldron will be flown over 60 meters from the Tuileries Gardens from sunset to 2am.