For Openers, It’s Not a Bad Sequel in Sydney

Rain that threatened to spoil the celebration held off Wednesday for the 11th Paralympics to open with a big party.

The biggest Paralympics picked up where the Sydney Games, the biggest of the modern Olympic era, ended 17 days earlier--in a vibrant spectacle of dance, music and Aussie icons.

Another full-scale party was already in full swing by the time Gov. Gen. Sir William Deane declared the games open and swimmer Tracey Cross read the oath.

About 4,000 athletes from 121 nations walked or rolled their wheelchairs onto the running track at Stadium Australia.

Some athletes spun their wheelchairs around in 360-degree wheelies and others performed handstands and somersaults up the main straight, raising thunderous cheers.

But the loudest cheer was saved for the Australians--the biggest team at these games--when their more than 200 athletes, some with the national flag painted on their faces, entered the stadium behind the other delegations.

Calypso music was drowned out by beating drums and the screams of more than 95,000 spectators, all either standing, jumping or dancing, as the letters A-U-S-T-R-A-L-I-A appeared on a giant video screen over a background of aboriginal designs.

From the middle of the infield, wheelchair athlete Louise Sauvage ignited a mini caldron that emerged from under a raised platform.

Sauvage, a multiple Paralympic gold medalist and three-time winner of the Boston Marathon, was the last of six torchbearers of the Paralympic flame inside the main stadium.

Competition in five of the 18 sports starts today.