The torch will set out from the Paralympic Games’ home base in England.

The Paralympic flame will be lit next to the English hospital where the competition’s idea originated on Saturday, four days before the start of the Paris Paralympic Games.

The Paralympic movement began in 1948 when German neurologist Ludwig Guttmann organized athletic competitions for wounded veterans at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, northwest of London.

The Stoke Mandeville Games were held on hospital grounds in conjunction with the 1948 London Olympics, and those grounds later became the stadium where Saturday’s ceremony will take place.

Four decades later, 400 athletes from 23 countries competed in the first Paralympic Games in Rome in 1960.

The International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons and Paris 2024 organizing committee president Tony Estanguet will be present for the torch-lighting event on Saturday at noon.

At its Stoke Mandeville home, the Paralympic torch will be lighted for the first time since the 2012 London Olympics.

The iconic torch will be lit by two British Paralympians, Gregor Ewan and Helene Raynsford.

When para-rowing made its Olympic debut in Beijing in 2008, Raynsford was the first competitor to win the title. Ewan has participated in three Winter Games wheelchair curling competitions.

On Sunday, the flame will go through the Channel Tunnel, carried halfway by 24 torchbearers from Britain and then turned over to 24 torchbearers from France, who will carry it all the way to Calais.

Then, from Sunday to Wednesday, twelve candles will traverse France. The Olympic cauldron at the Tuileries Gardens in Paris will then be reached by the flame.

In over fifty cities, a thousand torchbearers will alternate.

Before reaching the Paris area, the primary flame from Stoke Mandeville will go through the cities of Calais, Arras, Amiens, Louviers, and Chambly.

The first-ever Paralympic Games in France will get underway on August 28 with an opening ceremony between the Champs-Elysees and the Place de la Concorde, which will be choreographed by artistic director Thomas Jolly in a manner similar to those that heralded the beginning of the Olympic Games in July.

For the event, almost 2.5 million tickets have been made available. According to the organizers, as of Wednesday, slightly over 1.75 million have attended, with over a dozen sports nearly sold out.

There will be almost 4,400 competitors in 549 events spread across 18 competition venues, 16 of which are the same as their Olympic counterparts.

These consist of the Stade de France, the Grand Palais, and the Chateau de Versailles.

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