Paris 2024 unveils the route of the Paralympic Torch Relay

While the Olympic Flame will be extinguished at the Olympic Games Closing Ceremony on 11 August 2024, the Paralympic Flame will be lit a few days later in Stoke Mandeville, in order to launch the first Paralympic Flame Relay in the history of the Summer Games.

Then, it will leave the historic birthplace of Paralympic sport, for a four-day journey (25 to 28 August 2024) until arriving in Paris for the lighting of the Paralympic Cauldron. 

During the first part of that voyage, the Paralympic Flame will be symbolically passed between 24 English and 24 French athletes in the middle of the Channel Tunnel. 

Afterward, when arriving on the French coast at Calais, the Paralympic Flame will multiply into twelve Flames spread around the outskirts of France. It will be carried by no fewer than 1,000 forerunners in around fifty towns (covering 100% of the French regions), in 12 simultaneous relays converging on Paris for the Opening Ceremony on 28 August, which will take place for the first time outside a stadium, in the heart of the capital, from the Champs-Elysées to the Place de la Concorde.

The objective of the Paralympic Torch Relay is to raise the fervour in every part of the country and its route was designed in collaboration with the French Paralympic and Sports Committee, with the aim of highlighting areas that are committed to greater inclusion in sport. It has also been designed to highlight the sporting and committed cities closest to the Games, as well as cities that are symbolic of France's history and heritage.  

"The Paris 2024 Paralympic Torch Relay will honour the many territories committed to sport and inclusion daily and represent the richness and diversity of France’s heritage", said the President of Paris 2024, Tony Estanguet. 

"The opportunity is all the more precious as people still know little about the Paralympic Games, and hosting them on our soil will create the conditions for a truly unique gathering", he added.

During the Relay, a Festival of the Flame will be organised in the heart of the city, with music, activities and introductory courses in Para sports, to share the energy of the Paralympic Games with as many people as possible. 

Four French athletes and Para athletes were selected as the captains for the Relay. They are Mona Francis (European Para triathlon Champion), Dimitri Pavadé (Tokyo Paralympic Games Silver Medallist in Long Jump), Florent Manaudou (Olympic Swimming Champion), and Laure Manaudou (Olympic Swimming Champion). They were part of the Torch Relay release and they also unveiled the uniforms of the 1,000 Paralympic Torchbearers and the 10,000 Olympic Torchbearers of the Paris 2024 Relays.

Specifically about the Paralympic Torchbearers, 800 of them will carry the Torch for 200 meters each (four minutes), while 200 will participate in team relays (eight minutes for each team).   

The torchbearers will take to the roads of France in a uniform designed by Decathlon, an Official Partner of Paris 2024. It will be white to symbolise the peace, unity and fraternity between peoples so dear to the tradition of the Torch Relay. With the exception of the emblem, the uniforms of the bearers of the Olympic Flame and the Paralympic Flame will be identical. 

The Torch Relay is organised with the support of its Official Sponsors, Coca-Cola, Banques Populaires and Caisses d'Epargne.