The World Para Athletics committee has selected Paris as host for the World Para Athletics Championship 2023. Paris will be hosting the championship for the first time, which is scheduled from July 8-17, 2023.
The World Para Athletics Championship is going to be the biggest Para sport event to take place in the French Capital before the city hosts the Paralympic Games in 2024. The championship will be held at the Charlety Stadium, which has been the venue for the World Para Athletics Grand Prix since 2017.
Speaking on the occasion, Guislaine Westelynck, President of the French Handisport Federation, said: “We are very proud to work on the World Para Athletics Championships Paris23 project. We are already visualising it, we are already dreaming about it, with all the synergies and the legacy it can bring. I am confident thanks to our knowledge, after the successes of Villeneuve d’Ascq 2002, Lyon 2013, the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Paris, and all the international competitions that we have already organised in other sports. I am pleased with the support from the institutional partners, who immediately positioned themselves on the starting line alongside us. What a fantastic opportunity to celebrate athletes from all over the world, one year before hosting the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Adding to it, Haozhe Gao, Head of World Para Athletics, said: “World Para Athletics is extremely happy to announce that Paris will host our World Championships for the first time in 2023. The city’s record of hosting successful sporting events speaks for itself and we know the impact Para athletics can have in changing attitudes towards persons with disabilities and transforming lives on and off the track. Paris 2023 has a potential to deliver the best World Championships ever with a clear vision for a post-event legacy embracing the values of inclusion, diversity, accessibility and sustainability.”
The last edition of the World Para Athletics Championship was hosted by Dubai in 2019, where more than 1300 athletes from 92 nations enrolled their names to participate in the competition. While this will be the third edition of the Championship, which is to be hosted in France, the earlier two were hosted in Lille/Villeneuve d’Ascq 2002 and Lyon 2013.