What are the Paralympic Games?

Eleven days of elite competition in 22 sports. With 549 medals at stake, 4,400 athletes from 128 different countries will participate, all with a physical or cognitive disability.

When does it start?

The Opening Ceremony for the 17th Summer Paralympic Games will take place in Paris on Wednesday 28 August from 7pm UK time. As with this summer’s Olympic Games, the ceremony will not take place in a stadium but in the city, with the location shifting from the River Seine to the Champs Élysées. A “people’s parade” will be open to the general public before arriving at the Place de la Concorde, previously the venue of the Olympic Games”urban park”, who will then perform the highlight of the evening and the lighting of the Paralympic torch. The sporting action begins the following day.

Where is the sport played?

Some of the locations you fell in love with earlier this summer are making a return, with 18 of the 35 Olympic venues being transformed for the Paralympics. The Stade de France and La Défense Arena will host athletics and swimming respectively, while cycling returns to the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome. The sand has been cleared from the Eiffel Tower stadium, allowing blind football to replace beach volleyball. The only event held outside the French capital is the para-shooting event in Châteauroux.

What time is the action?

You’ve probably already adjusted your body clock to the challenges of consuming sport in the French capital, and for those in the UK it’s not so difficult (it’s an hour ahead). Sport starts at 8:30am local time and finishes at 10:30pm.

What are the main events?

Like the Olympics, the athletics programme is the heart of the Paralympic Games. The competition begins on Friday 30 August and lasts for nine days, with medals awarded each day. Both Saturdays are particularly busy, with 22 finals taking place in two sessions on 7 September. Other major events to look forward to include the wheelchair rugby final on Monday 2 September and the para-rowing finals day at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium on Sunday 1 September.

Which British stars should we watch out for?

Of the 215 athletes making up this year’s ParalympicsGB team, 81 are debutants, meaning there’s a good chance of new stars emerging. Among the new names, look out for 19-year-old cyclist Archie Atkinson (running in the C4 pursuit), 13-year-old swimming prodigy Iona Winnifrith (running in the SB7 100m breaststroke and SM7 individual medley) and Rachel Choong, the world para-badminton champion who is making her Games debut after her classification was finally included in the competition.

What is a ‘classification’?

A key feature of disabled sports is that athletes are selected for competition based on the nature and severity of their disability. To ensure fair competition, all athletes must go through the classification process, where they are assessed by technical and medical experts to ensure that they are selected in an appropriate category. This is one reason why there are so many medals; there are dozens of different classifications, especially in athletics.

Classification can be a source of great disappointment, with athletes sometimes being excluded from competition because their disability is not considered severe enough. It is also a political issue, with debate over whether there should be more classification to allow for greater inclusion, or fewer to increase competitiveness.

How can I watch the Games?

There are still 500,000 tickets available for the Games, mainly for athletics at the 80,000-capacity Stade de France. Additional tickets are also expected for some of the sold-out sports: wheelchair fencing, para-taekwondo, para-cycling, para-equestrian, triathlon, para-shooting and blind football.

In the UK, Channel 4 is promising its most extensive coverage yet, with over 1,300 hours of live broadcasts and up to 18 simultaneous live streams on its YouTube channel. It will also be its most inclusive yet, with subtitles available for every broadcast and closed audio description on Channel 4 in primetime, while live sport on More4 and Channel 4 Streaming will include live British Sign Language signage on weekday afternoons. The BBC, meanwhile, will provide radio coverage.