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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

How to watch the Paris Paralympic Games on TV in France

For the second time this summer, Paris is gearing up to host the world’s best athletes as the Paralympics gets under way. Here is how to tune in from France.

Published: 21 August 2024 13:21 CEST
Updated: 28 August 2024 08:14 CEST
The Paralympic Games logo on the Arc de Triomphe
The Paralympic Games logo on the Arc de Triomphe. (Photo by Andrej ISAKOVIC / AFP)

For two glorious weeks in August, France basked in the Olympic Games – and the good news is that we get to do it all over again at the end of the month when Paris hosts the 2024 Paralympic Games (August 28th to September 8th).

There are several ways sports fans can catch the action.

Fan Zones

Big screens and fan parks that were open during the Olympic Games will show events from the Paralympics, including the Parvis de l’Hôtel de Ville, which can accommodate up to 2,500 people, and has two giant screens to follow the competitions.

READ ALSO What you need to know about the Paris Paralympics

Club France, meanwhile, at the Grande Halle de la Villette, allows fans to celebrate with medallists and enjoy action on a big screen. 

And, in neighbouring Seine-Saint-Denis, Parc Georges Valbon, in La Courneuve, has a giant 80m2 screen showing live events throughout the Paralympic Games,

Several of France’s big cities will also have fan zones – including Marseille which will host a fan zone at their ‘Club 2024 de Provence’ at the Hôtel du Département.

You can find other fan zones and activities using this interactive map.

Likewise sports bars and cafés around France are likely to show action from the Games on TV.

READ ALSO 11 apps to use in Paris during the Paralympics

On TV

But if you prefer to remain at home, lots of TV coverage is planned. You can see the full schedule for the Games here.

The opening ceremony on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and Place de la Concorde will be screened on free-to-air channel France 2, from 8pm on Wednesday, August 28th.

READ MORE: What you need to know about the Paralympics opening ceremony in Paris

The closing ceremony that will signal the end of the Paris 2024 extravaganza, will also be on France 2 from 8.30pm on Sunday, September 8th. 

Director Thomas Jolly – the brains behind the Olympic Games ceremonies – is in charge of both shows again.

In fact, broadcaster France Televisions, which runs the France 2, France 3 and France 4 channels, and the france.tv online platform will show wall-to-wall Paralympic Games coverage. 

France 2 and France 3 will broadcast the Paralympic competitions live every day and alternately, between 9.30am and 11.25pm. 

READ ALSO How to get tickets for the Paris Paralympics

All the events will also be broadcast on the dedicated digital channel France TV Paris 2024, allowing viewers to follow their favourite sports and athletes. A live chat Fan Zone will be available to comment in real time and ask questions to the presenters.

For late-shift workers and night-owls highlights of the competition will be rebroadcast during the night, before the live broadcast returns in the early morning.

Meanwhile, pay-TV broadcaster Eurosport – available through the Max app, or to Canal Plus sport pack subscribers – will also broadcast Paralympic events all day every day, often covering events not necessarily showing on the main France Televisions channels.

READ ALSO Your guide to getting around Paris during the Paralympics

Keep in mind that these options will mostly show coverage in French. 

If you want to watch with English commentary, you can try to watch some of the foreign broadcasters (subject to rights and accessibility) such as the UK’s Channel 4, Ireland’s RTE or the USA’s NBC.

You can find the list of TV channels across the world who will show Paralympics coverage HERE, and you can check out the official Paralympics Youtube channel HERE.

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PARIS 2024 PARALYMPICS

IN PICTURES: Paris Paralympics open in blaze of hope and inclusivity

The 2024 Paralympics opened in Paris on Wednesday in a colourful and hope-filled ceremony, starting 11 days of competition in a city still riding the wave of the successful Olympics.

Published: 29 August 2024 08:53 CEST
IN PICTURES: Paris Paralympics open in blaze of hope and inclusivity

French President Emmanuel Macron declared the Games open during a ceremony in a balmy Place de la Concorde in central Paris — the first time a Paralympic opening ceremony has taken place away from the main stadium.

Greece’s delegation parade in front of the Obelisque de Louxor (Luxor Obelisk) at the Place de la Concorde. (Photo by Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP)

The 4,400 competitors from 168 delegations paraded into the arena as the sun set with host nation France entering last to a standing ovation from 30,000 spectators packed into the stands around the historic square.

France’s paralympic flag bearer Alexis Hanquinquant parades at the Place de la Concorde. (Photo by Gonzalo Fuentes / POOL / AFP)

The fine weather was in sharp contrast to the heavy rain which fell throughout the Olympics opening ceremony on July 26.

In one of the highlights of the ceremony, French singer Lucky Love, who is missing his left arm below the elbow, performed a moving rendition of his song “My Ability” surrounded by both able-bodied and disabled dancers.

French singer Lucky Love performs at the Place de la Concorde. (Photo by Gonzalo Fuentes / POOL / AFP)

International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president Andrew Parsons then told the athletes and spectators he hoped for an “inclusion revolution”, before Macron officially declared the Games open.

The Paralympic flag was carried into the square by John McFall, a British Paralympic sprinter who has been selected by the European Space Agency to become the first ‘parastronaut’.

French Olympian Florent Manaudou brought the flame into the arena, as the four-day torch relay reached its culmination with five French Paralympians, including 2020 gold medallists Alexis Hanquinquant and Nantenin Keita, eventually lighting the already-iconic cauldron in the Tuileries Gardens.

France’s paralympic torchbearers: (L) Charles-Antoine Kaoukou, Nantenin Keita, Fabien Lamirault, Alexis Hanquinquant and Elodie Lorandi (R) hold the Paralympic flame in front of the Paralympic cauldron. (Photo by Franck FIFE / AFP)

A total of 18 of the 35 Olympic venues will also be used for the Paralympics, which run until September 8th, including the ornate Grand Palais and the Stade de France.

Ticket sales have sped up since the Olympics and organisers say more than two million of the 2.5 million available have been sold, with several venues sold out.

READ MORE: How to get tickets for the Paris Paralympics

Predictions

Riding the wave of its Olympic team’s success, host nation France is aiming for a substantial improvement on the 11 golds it won in 2021, which left it 14th in the medals table.

Paralympic powerhouse China dominated the last Paralympics in Tokyo with 96 golds and has again sent a strong delegation.

Ukraine, traditionally one of the top medal-winning nations at the Paralympics, has sent a team of 140 athletes to compete in 17 sports despite the challenges they face in preparing as the war against Russian forces rages at home.

A total of 96 athletes from Russia and Belarus will compete under a neutral banner but are barred from the ceremonies because of the invasion of Ukraine.

READ MORE: How to watch the Paris Paralympic Games on TV in France

Every Games produces new stars, and in this edition look to American above-the-knee amputee sprinter/high jumper Ezra Frech to make the headlines.

Away from the track, more established names go in search of glory.

Iranian sitting volleyball legend Morteza Mehrzad, who stands 8ft 1in tall, will attempt to take gold again and Beatrice ‘Bebe’ Vio, the Italian fencer who had to have all four limbs amputated when she contracted meningitis at the age of 11, is aiming for the third Paralympic title of her career.

The Paralympics always have a far wider message than simply sport and Parsons told AFP earlier this year he hopes the Paris edition will restore the issues that disabled people face to the top of the list of global priorities.

The Brazilian believes the Games “will have a big impact in how people with disability are perceived around the world”.

“This is one of the key expectations we have around Paris 2024; we believe that we need people with disability to be put back on the global agenda,” Parsons said.

“We do believe people with disability have been left behind. There is very little debate about persons with disability.”

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