"We wanted it to kick off where the Paralympics were born," Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet told a press conference. The torch will then be carried by 24 British athletes and midway through the Channel Tunnel 24 French athletes will take over for the journey to Calais. Eleven other flames will then be lit in France and all will converge on Paris for the Aug. 28 Games opening ceremony. German-born Guttmann became a British citizen in 1945 and organised the first Stoke Mandeville Games for disabled war veterans three years later. All participants in what Guttmann called the "Paraplegic Games" were suffering from spinal cord injuries and competed in wheelchairs.

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Persons: Denis, Mathieu Lehanneur, Pascal, Ludwig Guttmann, Tony Estanguet, Guttmann, Julien Pretot, Ken Ferris Organizations: Press, Paris, Rights, Stoke, Stoke Mandeville Games, Concorde, Thomson Locations: France, Stoke Mandeville, Britain, Paris, Calais, British