Seventeen days after the curtain came down on the Olympic Games, Paris is all set for round two as the 17th Paralympic Games kick off this evening in the French capital.
The opening ceremony will take a leaf out of the Olympic playbook – in the left-field approach rather than the weather, with temperatures expected to be in the 30s during the day – and Thomas Jolly is once again the man responsible for a ceremony like no other.
Jolly has decided against the traditional stadium approach to an opening ceremony, with athletes parading through the Avenue des Champs-Elysees to the Place de la Concorde, the largest square in Paris.
A square a with a bloody past – King Louis XVI and his wife Marie-Antoinette were famously guillotined there in 1793 – for Team Ireland members, it's all about keeping their own heads with competition looming.
Table-tennis player Colin Judge and sprinter Orla Comerford will be Irish flagbearers, but with 18 athletes in action over the first two days, less than half of the 35-strong team are expected to be part of the official parade.
2016 Paralympian Peter Ryan, who will form part of RTÉ’s coverage in Paris, says it is a tricky situation all round.
"Everyone wants to go," he says. "You are trading off the human versus the athlete. A lot of life decisions over the Paralympic cycle have been put through the filter of, 'does this make me better or worse at my sport?’ This is the final time you have to do it.
"The opening ceremony is a phenomenal experience. For para sport, you don’t tend to get those feverish atmospheres and huge crowds. Anyone that goes to it, it’s one of the highlights of their life.
"For the people that don’t go, you just can’t dwell on it. It’s one more entry into the catalogue of what you do to be the best in your sport."
The ceremony will showcase some of the 4,400 para-athletes from 184 global delegations, where dance will be the central theme, with over 150 dancers, including those with impairments.
The message from organisers has been that the Paralympics are every bit as important and popular as the Olympics.
"It's the rematch," Tony Estanguet, the president of Paris 2024, said earlier this month and all the indications are pointing in that direction.
The temporary stadiums have been removed from the Place de la Concorde, but 18 other sites are maintained, with the Stade de France shining like a beacon surrounded by Paris 2024 paraphernalia.
The success of the Olympics prompted a surge of 400,000 tickets being purchased during the Games, with the overall figure moving north of two million.
Half a million tickets remain available, with that figure likely to be whittled down further over the coming days.
Aldorith is one of the 45,000 volunteers working across the Olympic and Paralympic Games, helping visitors through the famous Gare du Nord train station, the busiest stop in the entire network.
The Cameroonian moved to France to pursue third level education last year and is part of the 15% of successful applicants to volunteer in Paris.
"It has been great for the city to welcome so many people from different countries," he says.
"We’re expecting numbers to be slightly down on the Olympic Games, but there is still a great atmosphere around here, which will only get better in the coming days."
Tomorrow is when the serious business starts in earnest, with Team Ireland represented by seven athletes across archery, swimming and track cycling.
Swimmers Dearbhaile Brady, Nicole Turner and Róisín Ní Ríain are first up in their respective heats at La Defense Arena, with the trio seeking to progress to finals that evening, with Ní Ríain seeking to add to her European silver in the S13 100m butterfly.
Para archer Kerrie Leonard will kick off her second Games, where her initial ranking round will see archers shoot 72 arrows over distances of 50m or 70m.
In the velodrome, Damien Vereker and pilot Mitchell McLaughin will be joined by compatriots Martin Gordon and Eoin Mullen (pilot) in the men’s B4 4000m individual pursuit, with Richael Timothy competing in the women’s 3000m individual pursuit.
Follow all the action from the Paralympic Games with our coverage on RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app, watch live on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player or listen to updates and live commentaries on RTÉ Radio.
