Paris on track for 1st-ever Paralympic sellout, officials say

PARIS -- Paris 2024 has sold just over 2 million tickets for the Paralympic Games, organizers said hours before the opening ceremony Wednesday, adding they were confident it would be a sold-out extravaganza.

Organizers said Tuesday that some 500,000 tickets were still up for grabs, which, if they are sold, would put Paris just short of the record 2.7 million sold for the 2012 London Games, where 97% tickets were purchased.

At the 2008 Beijing Games, 1.82 million tickets were sold and organizers distributed 1.62 million to schools, according to International Paralympic Committee figures.

Some 2.1 million tickets were sold for the 2016 Rio Paralympics, a number Paris expects to surpass, according to IPC spokesperson Craig Spence.

Paris officials are confident the Paralympics will be sold out, which would be a first.

"We know we will continue to sell tickets over the next days, probably until the end of the Games," Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet said. "It was the case at the Olympics, we sold tickets until the very last day, even the last hour, and that's been very exciting for us to see that fans were excited until the end and really wanted to take the last opportunities."

More than a month after the opening ceremony of the Olympics on the Seine, the Paralympic Games' opening event will also take place Wednesday outside a stadium, this time on the Champs-Elysees and Place de la Concorde.