Stadiums packed with fans will be welcome sight for 2024 Paralympic athletes
'That's what we can't wait for,' says Josh Vander Vies, Canadian co-chef de mission for Paris
The party starts with the opening ceremony at the Champs-Élysées one year from today.
Josh Vander Vies, a 2012 boccia bronze medallist and co-chef de mission of Team Canada in Paris, remembers that moment from his three Paralympics vividly.
"You're in the tunnel getting closer and closer, and then you hear the loudness and then you cross the threshold and it's 80,000 people cheering. And then they announce Canada and everybody cheers a little bit louder. That's what we can't wait for."
The 2024 Paris Paralympics have been coined "The Celebration Games" — a return to order, and perhaps even the establishment of a new normal, for an event stunted by the pandemic at Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022.
Karolina Wisniewska, an eight-time Paralympic medallist who shares the role with Vander Vies, said she's already feeling that excitement.
"What we're seeing and what we're sensing out there is that the Paris Games may well be on the level or surpassing London 2012, which in Paralympic parlance were the greatest summer Paralympic Games up to that point," Wisniewska said.
Stadiums packed with fans will be a welcome sight for athletes, who mostly missed out on that experience in Tokyo.
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People lined sidewalks
Keely Shaw, a Para cyclist from Midale, Sask., won bronze on the track in an empty stadium in Tokyo but also competed in road races where people lined the sidewalks.
"It was pouring, it was a monsoon, and it was all kinds of awful. But there were locals out there with cow bells and horns and signs, and they're cheering for you whether you're in first-place position or whether you're last getting lapped by the group."
Shaw, 29, recently experienced that feeling inside the velodrome at the world championships in Scotland and said it was "wild."
"It was electric and it's pretty incredible to see. Don't get me wrong, that can be a little bit nerve wracking, but when I'm on the track, I don't hear the sounds. I don't see the fans. It's me and the coach and I'm pretty dialed," she said.
Not only were fans not allowed in stadiums in Tokyo or Beijing — neither were families.
Nate Riech, 28, said it was "awesome" to embrace Carla Nicholls, Canada's Paralympic high-performance lead, and coach Heather Henninger after winning gold in the 1,500 metres in Tokyo.
But he said the accomplishment didn't truly set in until seeing the smiling faces of his family upon his return home.
"I'm excited to hopefully have that moment at the Games and hopefully the night after to have a drink with all of them about me coming up on top. That's probably the thing I'm looking most forward to," Riech said.
But there are also the little moments before the medal in which athletes yearn for a taste of home.
Riech got a preview of what next summer could look like at the recent Para Athletics world championships, which were held in Paris.
"I'm used to just having me and Heather going out to dinner once or twice before the championships. But this time I was getting to go walk around with my partner, getting to go to dinner with all of them," Riech said.
"I think it was different for sure, but different in a good way. Different where I felt like myself, was a bit more relaxed. And I definitely put some extra pressure on myself to win. But I think at the end of the day, if you're putting pressure on yourself to win, then you're in a pretty good spot."
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Diminished atmosphere
Those who watched the past two Paralympics from home also felt the effect of a diminished atmosphere.
There just wasn't that same pop, that same jolt of energy an audience provides to live sports.
Now, imagine thousands of fan packing the foot of the Eiffel Tower for blind football, wheelchair tennis at the famed Roland Garros Stadium and Para equestrian at the Chateau de Versailles.
Vander Vies said Canadian fans should be prepared to see their athletes do "outstanding" things at those iconic venues.
"The Paralympics are not perfect, but they are incredible. And so I would challenge Canadians to open themselves up to the benefits that we will all get by just soaking in the incredible work that our Paralympians are going to be doing in Paris," he said.
Wisniewska echoed that sentiment.
"The interesting thing about the Paralympic movement is it's kind of growing exponentially. So it's like, catch on because it is awesome … and it will be even more awesome."
