Paris was part chaotic, on the edge, and teeming with security personnel and police in the days ahead of the Olympic Games. Once the tenseness of the opening ceremony was done, the city got back to its normal pace. Metro services were back, but there was still a huge police presence everywhere. For anybody stepping into Paris, the signs were everywhere. I left Paris early the day after the closing ceremony.
A team member who stayed behind tells me that while there is still a lot of police there, it’s more relaxed around the metro stations and public places. It’s about 70 per cent of what it was during the Olympics.
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Come the Paralympics, and we can reasonably expect a replay of the Olympics. Like the Olympics, the Paralympics opening ceremony will also be held outside the traditional confines of a stadium. This time the athletes’ parade will be on the iconic avenue of the Champs-Elysées, moving into the Place de la Concorde, where like it was during the Olympics, ticket holders will be able to watch the glorious ceremony. Some central metro stations like Place de la Concorde had remained shut through the duration of the Olympic Games. While the Champs-Elysées was open, it will certainly be off limits in the lead-up to the Paralympics.
We also expect to see a lot of universal accessibility incorporated into venues and the city as a whole. An estimated 280,000 persons with disability will be spectators during the Paris Paralympics and the city has been working towards improving its accessibility. Special aids are expected to be available for attendees who are blind or visually impaired, such as tactile tablets that offer live action or audio description through headsets at the venues.
Paris is one of the European cities where transport and other public facilities have typically been less accessible so far as disability is concerned. The legacy that Paris carries forward from the Olympics and Paralympics will to a large extent stem from the success of these measures towards creating a more open city. While Parisians have been somewhat averse to urban change centring on these Games, and while they remain devoted to the iconic Parisian way of life, this is one aspect of change that will be universally welcome.
However, the most definitive change that will stem from the hosting of the Paralympics will be a change of mindset. Host cities can never be the same so far as sensitisation and sensibility as regards the differently abled. Therein lies a true transformation of Parisian life. How Paris treats its international contingents of para-athletes, and those visitors with disability, will be a measure of the success of these games as a whole, the Olympics and Paralympics.
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