The 17th Summer Paralympic Games began with the first outdoor opening ceremony in Paris on Wednesday night, as the French capital welcomed athletes with disabilities under the motto, “Games Wide Open.” Paris had also held the opening ceremony for the Summer Olympics outside a stadium for the first time, with athletes riding boats down the iconic Seine River. The Summer Paralympics began in 1960, but it wasn’t until 1988 in Seoul that the host city of the Summer Olympics also held the Summer Paralympics in the same year. For Korea, canoeist Choi Yong-beom served as the flag bearer, representing the country’s delegation of 177 athletes and coaches competing in 17 out of 22 sports, including goalball, para badminton, boccia, shooting para sport, para swimming, para archery, and para table tennis. The Korea Paralympic Committee (KPC) has set its sights on five gold medals in Paris for a finish inside the top 20 in the medal race. Korea ranked among the top 20 at each of the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Paralympics. Korea will be best represented in para table tennis by 17 athletes, led by Joo Young-dae and Seo Su-yeon. There will be 12 Korean para shooters in Paris, with Park Jin-ho coming off five gold medals at the World Cup in the Korean city of Changwon in April. In boccia, competed across multiple disability classifications, Korea has won at least one gold medal at every competition since 1988. This year’s team features five-time Paralympian Jeong Ho-won, who will chase his third career gold. The 17th Paralympics, with 4,400 athletes competing in 549 medal events in 22 sports, will end Sept. 8. (Yonhap)
The 1st outdoor opening ceremony kicks off the Paris Paralympic Games.
