I don’t know about you, but watching the closing ceremony of the 2024 Olympics felt like I was waking up from a two-week trance where I was a boxing fan, a canoe enthusiast, and a huge Ilona Maher fan. I laughed, cried, and cried some more as I watched the dreams of so many incredible athletes come true. We’re lucky to have 12 more days to experience this special moment when 4,400 Paralympians take to the stage, but that’s two weeks away. Why? It turns out there are a few reasons why the Olympics and Paralympics are being delayed, even though they’re taking place in the exact same place.
Historically, the two-week gap would have allowed workers time to make the Olympic Village and competition spaces more accessible to thousands of athletes with various disabilities (and service dogs!), Craig Spence, chief brand and communications officer for the International Paralympic Committee, tells SELF. But thanks to strides in disability awareness and inclusion, everything is “built with both Olympic and Paralympic accessibility in mind, and all the ramps and tactile flooring are there from the start.” In fact, nothing needs to be added or changed to make the spaces more inclusive.
But many of the venues will have to be redesigned for Paralympic-specific sports, Spence says. For example, some of the goalball (a sport in which blind players throw a ball with a bell into a cage) will be held in the same place where some of the Olympic handball courts were located; those courts are about twice as large. Similarly, the volleyball courts will be larger than the courts for sitting volleyball, which is roughly the same sport but played on the floor with a lower net. (Although that won’t be an issue this year, since those sports will be held in different locations.)
Additionally, Spence said the areas where the Olympic skateboarding, breaking and 3×3 basketball events took place must be completely dismantled, removed and rebuilt in time for the Paralympic opening ceremony on Aug. 28. The famous Olympic rings will also need to be removed from all competition venues and replaced with the Paralympic agitos, which means “I move” in Latin and is made up of three waves.
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