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Paris to Inaugurate Paralympic Games with 'Never Seen Before' Opening Ceremony in City's Heart

Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games - The Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony - Olympic Stadium, Tokyo, Japan - September 5, 2021. A 'Paris 2024' mural is seen during the closing ceremony REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Purchase Licensing Rights
Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games - The Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony - Olympic Stadium, Tokyo, Japan - September 5, 2021. A 'Paris 2024' mural is seen during the closing ceremony REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Purchase Licensing Rights
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Paris to Inaugurate Paralympic Games with 'Never Seen Before' Opening Ceremony in City's Heart

Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games - The Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony - Olympic Stadium, Tokyo, Japan - September 5, 2021. A 'Paris 2024' mural is seen during the closing ceremony REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Purchase Licensing Rights
Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games - The Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony - Olympic Stadium, Tokyo, Japan - September 5, 2021. A 'Paris 2024' mural is seen during the closing ceremony REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon Purchase Licensing Rights

Just weeks after hosting the Olympics, the summer of sports in Paris begins its final chapter Wednesday with the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games.

More than 4,000 athletes with physical, visual and intellectual impairments will compete in 22 sports over the next 11 days.

Organizers are promising a spectacular show to open the Games. Once again it's being held outside the confines of a stadium, but unlike the rain-soaked Olympic opening ceremony, which featured a boat parade on the Seine River, the Paralympic ceremony is happening exclusively on land, with athletes parading down the famous Champs-Elysées to the ceremony at the Place de la Concorde, according to The AP.

Artistic director Thomas Jolly, who led the opening ceremony for the Olympics, said the event will “showcase the Paralympic athletes and the values that they embody", and promised “performances that have never been seen before." The July 26 opening ceremony highlighted inclusion and diversity.

Wednesday night's show — set to start at 8 p.m. — promises to celebrate the human body, and with far better weather. As the mid-afternoon sun scorched Paris, some fans gathered early to get top spots on the Champs-Elysées, which leads down to Concorde.

Organizers say more than 2 million of the 2.8 million tickets have been sold for the Paris Paralympics. Competition begins Thursday with the first medals handed out in taekwondo, table tennis and track cycling. Athletes are grouped by impairment levels to ensure as level a playing field as possible. Only two sports on the program, goalball and boccia, don't have an Olympic equivalent.

International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons said that the big crowds expected in Paris will mean a lot to the athletes, many of whom competed in front of empty stands at the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As our ambition is to be perceived and understood as the most transformational sport event on the planet, by having this atmosphere, it’s important," he told The AP on the eve of the opening ceremony.

Accessibility in the parade area has been facilitated with strips of asphalt laid along the Champs-Elysées, with it also being placed over the entire Concorde square.

Parsons added that the ceremony would be the city's way of welcoming Paralympic athletes with a “gigantic hug.”

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Sinner Starts Poorly at US Open but Wins First Match Since His Steroids Case Emerged 

Jannik Sinner, of Italy, reacts after scoring a point against Mackenzie McDonald, of the United States, during the first round of the US Open tennis championships, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP)
Jannik Sinner, of Italy, reacts after scoring a point against Mackenzie McDonald, of the United States, during the first round of the US Open tennis championships, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP)
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Sinner Starts Poorly at US Open but Wins First Match Since His Steroids Case Emerged 

Jannik Sinner, of Italy, reacts after scoring a point against Mackenzie McDonald, of the United States, during the first round of the US Open tennis championships, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP)
Jannik Sinner, of Italy, reacts after scoring a point against Mackenzie McDonald, of the United States, during the first round of the US Open tennis championships, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP)

If there were any boos directed Jannik Sinner's way at the US Open, they were imperceptible amid the polite applause from the sparse crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium when he was introduced Tuesday before the No. 1-ranked man's first match since his doping case emerged a week ago.

After a sloppy and slow opening set, Sinner pulled away for a 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 victory against Mackie McDonald of the United States to reach the second round at Flushing Meadows.

“The response from fans, I feel it has been great. Also throughout, when the news came out, in the practice sessions, there was a lot of support, which I’m very glad and happy about,” Sinner said. “It is still a little bit not easy. You have to go through, day by day.”

There were no apparent signs in the stands or disparaging shouts making reference to what no one knew about for months: Sinner tested positive twice for trace amounts of the anabolic steroid Clostebol in an eight-day span in March.

Nothing was announced publicly until last week, when word came that the 23-year-old Italian was docked prize money and ranking points from the tournament where the first result appeared, but he escaped a suspension because it was ruled he was not at fault and the drug entered his system unintentionally, through a massage from his physiotherapist.

In his first public comments on the matter, at a pre-tournament news conference Friday, Sinner said he had fired the fitness trainer who bought an over-the-counter spray containing Clostebol in Italy and the physiotherapist who used it for a cut on his finger before treating the player and transferring the substance to his body.

During a brief on-court interview in Ashe, Sinner wasn't asked about the case, which has drawn some criticism from other players, including Novak Djokovic, about the way it was handled and questions about whether certain athletes are treated differently than others when it comes to the process for determining punishments related to doping.

“I cannot really control what they think and what they (say). I cannot control the players’ reaction,” Sinner said. “If I have something to say to someone, I go there privately, because I’m this kind of person. But, look, overall, it has been not bad. So I’m happy about that.”

Against McDonald, an American ranked 140th who fell to 4-13 in 2024, Sinner was way off the mark at the outset. He double-faulted. He put what should have been an easy smash into the net. He messed up volleys. It added up to 14 unforced errors in the initial set, helping McDonald grab five games in a row from 2-all to collect that set and go up a break in the second.

“I made him see a lot of balls. I served really well, too. I was defending super well,” said McDonald, who beat Rafael Nadal at the 2023 Australian Open. “My level just decreased, which is disappointing. I feel like I can play some really good tennis, which I did for a little bit. But to do that for a long time against a guy like that was too tough for me.”

Sinner turned things around quickly in the second set, making just 15 unforced errors combined over the last three sets, including zero in the third, and next will face another American, Alex Michelsen.

The way Sinner picked up his play is what everyone is used to seeing from him, particularly on hard courts like those used in New York. He improved to 29-2 on the surface this season with four titles, including his first Grand Slam trophy at the Australian Open in January.

“He just constantly pressures you,” McDonald said. “The ball is coming back so fast, over and over and over.”