Paris Paralympic Games begin with 1st outdoor opening ceremony; S. Korea eyes return to top 20

The 17th Summer Paralympic Games began with the first outdoor opening ceremony in the competition's history in Paris on Wednesday night, as the French capital welcomed athletes with disabilities under the motto, "Games Wide Open."

Paris had also held the opening ceremony for the Summer Olympics outside a stadium for the first time, with athletes riding boats down the iconic Seine River. On Thursday, Paralympians marched down the famous Champs-Elysee and toward Place de la Concorde, the largest square in Paris.

The Summer Paralympics began in 1960, but it wasn't until 1988 in Seoul that the host city of the Summer Olympics also held the Summer Paralympics in the same year. Paris had previously hosted the Summer Olympics in 1900 and 1924, but this is the city's first Paralympics.

For South Korea, canoeist Choi Yong-beom served as the flag bearer, representing the country's delegation of 177 athletes and coaches competing in 17 out of 22 sports, including goalball, para badminton, boccia, shooting para sport, para swimming, para archery and para table tennis.

The Korea Paralympic Committee has set its sights on five gold medals in Paris for a finish inside the top 20 in the medal race.

South Korea ranked among the top 20 at each of the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Paralympics. Then in 2021 in Tokyo, South Korea grabbed two gold medals and 24 medals overall to finish 41st, its lowest ranking since the country first participated in 1972.

South Korea will be best represented in para table tennis by 17 athletes, led by Joo Young-dae and Seo Su-yeon. At the 2023 Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China, Joo won gold medals in the men's singles and doubles, while Seo swept up women's singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles gold medals.

There will be 12 South Korean para shooters in Paris, with Park Jin-ho coming off five gold medals at the World Cup in the South Korean city of Changwon in April.

In boccia, competed across multiple disability classifications, South Korea has won at least one gold medal at every competition since 1988. This year's team features five-time Paralympian Jeong Ho-won, who will chase his third career gold.

The 17th Paralympics, with 4,400 athletes competing in 549 medal events in 22 sports, will end Sept. 8. (Yonhap)