The 17th Paralympic Summer Games ended on Sunday with a colorful celebration at the Stade de France.
At 9:57 p.m., the Paralympic flame in the Jardin des Tuileries was extinguished. It will be lit again in a year and a half at the Winter Games in Milan and Cortina (March 6 to 15, 2026). The next Summer Paralympics will take place in Los Angeles in 2028. The German flag was carried into the arena for the first time by a duo, swimmer Elena Semechin and fencer Maurice Schmidt, at the closing ceremony.
“Paris 2024 is quite simply the new benchmark for the Paralympic Games in every respect,” said IPC President Andrew Parsons. They were “record-breaking” days, “the most spectacular Paralympic Games ever.” The athletes “performed incredible feats, the sport was fantastic.” The Games have made France “more accessible and inclusive than ever before. That is just incredible.” We must “use the momentum of the Games to make the world around us more inclusive.”
64,000 spectators attended the closing ceremony in pouring rain, including French President Emmanuel Macron, and former German cyclist Denise Schindler was appointed to the IPC Athletes’ Commission. Team D Paralympics finished the games in Paris in eleventh place in the medal table with the worst gold haul to date. The team led by Para star Markus Rehm won a total of 49 medals (10/14/25), six more than in Japan.
Team D far behind in the medal table
Germany, which was ranked twelfth in the medal table three years ago, was once again far away from the top nations. The most successful nation was China with 220 medals (94/76/50), well ahead of Great Britain (124 – 49/44/31) and the USA (105 – 36/42/27). Germany was even clearly outperformed by smaller countries such as the Netherlands in fourth place (56 – 27/17/12).
“The athletes have created unique experiences. We can be satisfied. We are proud of what we have achieved,” said DBS President Friedhelm Julius Beucher to “SID”. Chef de Mission Karl Quade also stressed that Team D is doing “well” and has slowed the negative trend of the last few games.
Source: www.sport.de
