The Paralympic Games have come to an end with a spectacular light show and dance party capping a final day of competition that saw two world records fall.
Addressing the closing ceremony at a packed Stade de France, chief Paris 2024 organiser and former gold medal-winning canoeist Tony Estanguet said the six weeks of the Paralympics and the Olympics would remain “etched in people’s memories”.
“This summer, France had a date with history, and the country showed up,” he said.
More than 4,400 athletes from 168 Paralympic delegations partied to the best of French electronic dance music during the closing ceremony despite the rain.
Earlier, Morocco’s Fatima Ezzahra El Idrissi smashed the world record in the women’s marathon for runners with visual impairments.
El Idrissi finished the 42km (26.2 miles) course in 2 hours, 48 minutes and 36 seconds, beating the previous record by nearly six minutes.
“I wasn’t running for a time, only for a medal,” the 29-year-old Moroccan said.
Also on the final day of competition, Nigeria’s Folashade Oluwafemiayo broke her own world record in women’s para powerlifting.
China topped the Paralympics medal table with 94 golds, while Great Britain was second with 49 and the United States third with 36.
Ukraine’s athletes overcame the formidable obstacles posed by their country’s war against invading Russian forces to finish in seventh place with 22 golds while France was eighth with 19.
China has finished top of the medal table at every Paralympics since Athens in 2004.
The next Paralympics will take place in Los Angeles in 2028.
Despite initial fears about ticket sales, the Paralympics took place in mainly full stadiums, benefitting from the feel-good factor of the highly successful Olympics, which ended on August 11.
Parsons said the Paris Paralympics had shown that “change starts with sport”.
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