Paris is ready to sign off, having witnessed more than 15,000 athletes competing across 45 days of official competition between the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
With the organising committee pumping more than €3.4 billion into Paris 2024, value-for-money judgements will have to wait, but from an organisational perspective, there can be few complaints.
The French capital has been transformed into a sporting hub, with a logistical ease for athletes, fans and media alike in getting to multiple venues. The army of 45,000 volunteers have added greatly to the positive atmosphere at the various events, while local buy-in is evident in the fact that around 90% of the Paralympic tickets sold have been to French buyers.
The final sales tally lies somewhere in and around 2.5 million tickets, just short of the London Games.
By most other metrics however, the Para movement is going in only one direction, with visibility the key component.
More than 160 countries and territories broadcast the Games, with the overall revenue raised from media rights sales seeing a 20% increase compared to Tokyo 2020.
RTÉ broadcast 104 hours of TV coverage, compared to five hours at London 2012.
With Los Angeles and Brisbane the next to host the Games, Paris offers a more convenient location for a travelling Irish contingent, with hordes of Irish supporters descending on Stade de France, La Defense Arena, Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium and Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome in significant numbers to cheer on our 35 athletes.
Team Ireland will reflect on a Games that delivered the lowest medal return since 2008, the half a dozen medals short of the stated target of between eight and 10.
Katie-George Dunlevy continued her dominance in both road and track cycling, while swimming sensation Róisín Ní Riain added two Para medals to the five collected at the European Championships earlier this year.
The Limerick teenager was somewhat unfortunate not to add to her tally, with a couple of fourth-place finishes in her other two events; her 100m butterfly in particular a close call as she chased another podium spot.
Orla Comerford delivered a huge performance in her 100m event in storming to bronze, the occasion all the more memorable as it came just five and a half minutes after Ni Riain's second medal in the pool.
Noticeable too that all our medals came from vision-impaired women.
The likes of Ellen Keane, in her fifth and final Games, Greta Streimikyte, Ronan Grimes and Josephine Healion were among those who put themselves right in the mix for silverware.
A number of athletes experienced their first Games, while Team Ireland also brought a small group of athletes who fell just short of the qualifying standard to France with an eye on Los Angeles.
Improving squad depth over the next four-year cycle will be one of the main tasks facing Paralympic Ireland, yet visibility remains at the core of the Para movement.
Paris is preparing to say goodbye to an incredible summer of sport that will have lasting memories for Irish athletes.
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) September 8, 2024
For many it's a case of mixed emotions as Eamon Horan discovered. #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/OmCyrJ0ajR
Decorated cyclist Dunlevy was asked moments after her eighth Paralympic medal and third in the Paris Games, why, at 42 years of age, she still has the burning desire to compete at the top.
"I think it’s just to kind of give back and inspire the next generation, inspire children," she said.
"Even my younger self, I didn’t have anybody to look up to, any idols, so if it just inspires any child with vision impairment to just believe in themselves then that’s my job done."
What the Paralympic Games offers is hope and the triumph of the human spirit.
It is awash with stories of inspiration, from Fadi Deeb, the sole Palestinian representative who has lost more than 15 family members since the Israel-Hamas conflict, to Ali Truwit, the United States swimmer who lost a leg, and so nearly her life, in a shark attack last year.
Those stories provide the backdrop to sporting excellence as bit by bit, the Paralympic movement closes the gap on its Olympic counterpart. There remains a long way to travel on that particular path.
Tonight Ellen Keane and Michael Murphy will lead the Irish delegation for the closing ceremony at Stade de France to round off the 17th Games.
To quote the famous line from Casablanca, we'll always have Paris.
