Two weeks after French swimmer Léon Marchand extinguished the Olympic flame to close the Olympic Games in Paris, attention has now turned to his Paralympic counterpart.

British Paralympic athletes Helene Raynsford and Gregor Ewan lit the fire on Saturday in Stoke Mandeville, a village northwest of London widely regarded as the birthplace of the Paralympic Games.

The flame now travels to France, below the Channel, for a four-day relay from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the beaches of the Mediterranean, from the mountains of the Pyrenees to the Alps.

The journey ends in Paris on Wednesday during the Paralympic Games opening ceremony, with the lighting of a unique Olympic cauldron attached to a hot air balloon that will fly over the French capital each night during the 11 days of competition.

The flame has been lit

The lighting ceremony of the Paralympic Heritage Flame took place in Buckinghamshire, where the Stoke Mandeville Games were first held in 1948 for a small group of wheelchair athletes who had suffered spinal cord injuries during World War II.

The man behind the idea was Ludwig Guttmann, a Jewish neurosurgeon who had fled Nazi Germany and worked at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Britain. At the time, a spinal cord injury was seen as a death sentence, and patients were discouraged from moving. Guttmann had patients sit up and use their muscles, and came up with competition as a way to keep them motivated.

“I don’t know about you, but I can feel his presence here today, there’s no doubt about it,” International Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons said during Saturday’s lighting ceremony, referring to Guttmann.

Paris 2024 organising committee president Tony Estanguet said the French capital was “proud and excited” to host the 17th edition of the Summer Paralympics, the first-ever for France, two weeks after the conclusion of the Olympic Games.

“We are ready to make it unique and unforgettable for France and the whole world,” said Estanguet.

The Stoke Mandeville Games later evolved into the first Paralympic Games, held in Rome in 1960. The Heritage Flame Ceremony at Stoke Mandeville was first held ahead of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Crossing the Channel

The flame will cross the sea on Sunday, just as its Olympic twin did when it arrived in France from Greece in May, but this time via the Channel Tunnel to mark the start of the Paralympic relay.

A group of 24 British athletes will begin the underwater journey through the 30-mile tunnel. Halfway through, they will hand over the flame to 24 French athletes who will bring it ashore in Calais. It will be used to light 12 torches, symbolizing 11 days of competition and the opening ceremony.

4 days, 1,000 torchbearers and 50 cities

Once on French soil, the twelve branches of the flame will move in different directions to signal the start of the Olympic Games in Paris and to revive enthusiasm for the Games.

The 1,000 torchbearers include former Paralympians, young Paralympic athletes, volunteers from Paralympic federations, innovators of advanced technological support, people who dedicate their lives to others with disabilities and people who work in the non-profit sector supporting caregivers.

They will take the flame to 50 cities across the country to celebrate communities committed to promoting inclusivity in sports and raising awareness about living with a disability.

A special flame will be lit in Paris on Sunday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the French capital from occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II.

Emphasizing the infrastructure and innovation of parasport

The relay will highlight locations dedicated to the development of para-sports, as well as places where famous Paralympians grew up, such as Lorient, home of two-time Paralympic sailor Damien Seguin. The relay will also stop in Blois, which has a sports complex named after its Paralympic athlete Marie-Amélie Le Fur, who has nine medals, including two gold in Rio.

The relay will pass through Châlons-en-Champagne, which has the only gymnasium in France designed to provide people with intellectual disabilities with access to sport. And Rouen, Chartres and Troyes, which offer a range of disciplines, from sledge hockey to paratennis, paratriathlon, adapted baseball and paraclimbing.

The flame will be extinguished in Chambly, which, with its three sports facilities adapted for para-sports, has served as a training camp location alongside Deauville and Antibes.

Meet a star of the Games: the witches’ cauldron

On Wednesday, the twelve flames will become one again when the relay ends in the center of Paris. First, historical sites along the city’s famous boulevards and squares will be visited, after which the flames will fan the flames during the three-hour opening show.

The cauldron is the first in Olympic history to light up without the use of fossil fuels. It uses water and electric light and is attached to a balloon. It made a stunning maiden flight during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Every day of the Paralympics, the cauldron will fly more than 60 metres above the Tuileries Garden from sunset until 2am