Paris 2024 Messages from the CEO

Day 2

Kia ora and bonjour from Paris, Day 2 action and what a memorable day for our New Zealand Paralympic Team, with our first medal at Paris 2024 with Paralympian #225 Anna Taylor securing a silver medal in the individual pursuit.

It was great to be in the crowd along with Anna’s family and friends, many of whom have travelled from NZ to cheer her on and support her throughout the campaign. And you could really see how much it meant to Anna – she put absolutely everything into the ride to be able to make the final and then put in an amazing showing in the final itself.  You could see how much it had taken out of her, but on the podium the smile came out and you could see how pleased she was representing the country and being the first medallist for the New Zealand Paralympic Team.

There was plenty of other action taking place across Paris today – action at the pool, the track, the shooting range and the badminton courts.  Awesome to see finals for Paralympian #164 Cameron Leslie and Gaby Smith at the pool, and also finals for Paralympian #148 Michael Johnson at the shooting range.

Devon Briggs and Josh Willmer both narrowly missed finals on their debut, and it was a narrow defeat for Para badminton athlete Wojtek Czyz as he continues to take on the Para badminton competition.

Speaking of Para badminton, I had the opportunity to meet with football coaching superstar Jurgen Klopp and talked to him about his support for Wojtek and even passed on a New Zealand Paralympic Team pin for him to proudly wear. Jurgen was really complimentary of the opportunities that are provided for Para athletes in New Zealand. He was appreciative of the support from everybody to see Wojtek make his debut for the New Zealand Paralympic Team and attend another Paralympic Games. He also spoke really positively of more opportunities being created for disabled people all over the world and seeing new sports and new athletes represent New Zealand at the Paralympic Games.

The atmosphere across all venues has been absolutely incredible, especially when French athletes are competing.  It’s a testament to the commitment and the passion that the French people are showing for the Paralympic Games, with full stadium and boisterous crowds supporting all athletes regardless of where they come from.

And whilst I can say that all venues are very impressive in terms of the way they have been set up, and the presentation that has been going on, I’d like to touch on Paris La Défense Arena, the swimming venue for the both the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games.

Many of you wouldn’t know that it is actually a multipurpose venue that is used for indoor grass sports, indoor court sports, concerts and a range of other events.  And for the Games a temporary pool has been constructed – 2.2m deep and when you are sitting in the venue you wouldn’t know that it is anything other than an international standard swimming pool.

The quality of the sport presentation and the visual imagery across all venues is something that I have never seen before. The ability to be able to use multiple screens and project imagery onto the field of play, whether it is the cycling track at the velodrome, or onto the pool surface at the swimming – all of these elements are really adding to the experience for not only for the athletes competing on the field of play, but also for spectators that are enjoying the world-class competition.

Today PNZ Chair Jana Rangooni and myself welcomed our newest member to the team, our Paralympic Family Assistant, Adrien.  Adrien has been allocated to the NZ Paralympic Team and specifically to Jana and I to assist with navigating our way across all venues and elements of our experience for the Paralympic Games. He has been of huge assistance to ensure we secure vehicles to make sure we can move between venues so that we don’t miss any of our NZ Paralympians competing in finals across the next few days.

Adrien is just one of the thousands of volunteers here in Paris, all incredibly enthusiastic and there is definitely lots of interest in the NZ Paralympic Team and New Zealand, with many people that have either travelled to New Zealand or really keen to travel to New Zealand in the future.  Lots of questions being asked and of course, every second person – well maybe every person – is asking for a pin from NZ.

Another busy day of competition ahead as we look to Day 3 with more action at Para badminton, Para swimming, Para cycling and Shooting Para sport, and Para athletics kicks off for the first time with Danielle Aitchison taking to the track in the 200m.

Thanks to the many messages from everyone back home that are coming into Paris for the members of the NZ Paralympic Team.  It’s a huge boost for everybody knowing that the support from home is strong and everybody is tuning into the coverage on TVNZ and TVNZ+, and also adding and sharing comments all across our social channels which are seeing record breaking numbers for Paralympics New Zealand at a summer Paralympic Games.

It’s an action-packed weekend of Para sport ahead for members of our NZ Paralympic Team, so make sure you spend some time watching the live coverage, stay up late across the weekend, you don’t have to go to work until Monday!   Thanks for your support, have a great weekend, and merci beaucoup.