The 2024 Paralympic Games drew to a close last week, after a thrilling continuation of the athletic prowess and achievement on display at the Olympics. These Paralympics encapsulated more than 4,400 global athletes competing in 549 medal events within 22 individual and team sports. In addition to over two million tickets being sold to events, these Paralympic Games marked the first time ever that every Paralympic sport was broadcast in over 160 countries, marking a new level of respect and appreciation for disability sport and for the 1.2 billion people living with disabilities worldwide.
Much like at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Paralympics were rife with savvy design in all forms that thrilled us (almost) as much as the sports themselves. From adaptive design concepts to inclusive fashion, and statement-making equipment, innovative and exciting design at the Paralympics is critical to the Games’ function and to the athletes’ success. A “disability” is socially constructed, after all, and design is one of the keys to addressing deficiencies in society for those with disabilities, which extends into the world of sports.
To celebrate the end of this Paralympics season, we’ve compiled a roundup of some of the best design from the Games below!
Arjola Dedaj’s Butterfly Blindfold
Italian paralympic athlete Arjola Dedaj competed in the women’s long jump T11 wearing an elegant butterfly-shaped blindfold featuring the colors of the Italian flag. All athletes competing in the T11 class have near-total visual impairment and are required to wear blindfolds. Many of them seize the opportunity to make statements with their blindfolds, just as Dedaj did. She’s known for her bold blindfold choices, having previously competed in a metallic gold design at the 2024 World Para Athletics Championships in May.
Assunta Legnante’s Mona Lisa Blindfold
Assunta Legnante is another Italian paralympic track and field athlete who had some fun with her blindfold choices. The F12 shot put gold medalist donned two blindfold designs while competing at the Paris Paralympic Games, which were submitted by graphic design students at the University of Bologna. From 44 original submissions, a public vote was then cast on a pool of eight finalists, with the Mona Lisa design and another depicting Legnante’s eyes in the colors of the French and Italian flags selected as the winners.
“When I choose an eye mask, there is always a link between Italy and the host country,” Legnante told The Independent. “This time round it was France, so what’s better if not the Mona Lisa?”
Vinicius Rodrigues’s Retro Sunglasses
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the Brazilian bronze medalist in the 100m T63, Vinicius Rodrigues, and his retro eyewear. These iconic “Over the Top” sunglasses from Oakley were a throwback to a similar pair worn by Nigerian track and field Paralympian Adekunle Adesoji in Beijing 2008. The sci-fi, bionic style of the sunglasses drives home the otherworldly levels of accomplishment Paralympic athletes achieve.
The Paralympic Medals
Similar to the medals that were given out to the Olympic champions in July, the design for the Paralympic medals features a piece of the Eiffel Tower cut into the shape of a hexagon at the center on one side. The iron has been stripped of the brown paint used on the Eiffel Tower itself, returning it to its original color, giving each gold, silver, and bronze medal a two-tone effect.
The other side of the Paralympic medals are unique from their Olympic counterparts, featuring a view of the Eiffel Tower from beneath, framed with the words “Paris” and “2024” in universal Braille. This choice symbolizes accessibility and references the language’s French inventor, Louis Braille. Meanwhile, the edge of each Paralympic medal is engraved with the name of the sport, discipline, and event of the medalist in English (the official language of the International Paralympic Committee). To allow visually impaired athletes to distinguish the three metals by touch, lines are engraved on the edge of the medal: I for gold, II for silver, and III for bronze.
Para Sport Explainer Videos
The Germany-based creative studio Kreatives created a series of animated explainer videos to accompany each of the 22 Paralympic sports featured in Paris. Many Paralympic viewers might not know certain sports, so these videos were created to help explain each in a fun, visually compelling, and informative way. Most Paralympic sports have unique sets of rules, adaptive equipment, and athlete classifications that audience members are unfamiliar with. Kreatives aimed to fill that gap with these videos, enlisting a diverse team of creatives to do so.
“In a project where diversity and inclusion are at its core, we knew we had to elevate unique styles while balancing the series’s comprehensive, harmonious look,” Kreatives says on its website. “Therefore, we hired artists from around the globe with diverse cultural backgrounds and artistic expression.”
Assisted Viewing Tools
The Paralympic Games deployed technology to help viewers fully experience each sport. Vision Pads were used by those watching Goalball, for example, so that they could track the ball and feel vibrations during key moments of the game.
Caironi Martina’s Rainbow Running Blade
The specialty equipment on display at the Paralympics is design at its best. The functionality of the prosthetics being used is a tremendous feat in its own right, but it’s particularly fun when athletes make them their own with personal flair. Long jump T63 athlete Marty Cairo did just that with her rainbow running blade design, which features multicolored stripes and a cartoon unicorn.
Inclusive Fashion
The 2024 Paralympics have marked an important shift toward more inclusive fashion for many athletes. At the Opening Ceremony, Team Canada, for example, wore bright red jackets designed by Lululemon that featured magnetic closures to make them easier for everyone to take on and off. Lululemon also designed a pair of carpenter pants for athletes with pockets at the shins, so an athlete in a wheelchair can easily access them. These strides are reflective of a larger cultural movement toward more investment in and awareness around inclusive fashion, with the industry picking up steam and capital to make an impact on an even bigger scale.
Aymane El Haddaoui’s Running Shoes
Moroccan 400m T47 gold medalist Aymane El Haddaoui ran in a pair of shoes he embellished by hand seemingly with a Sharpie, penning the words “hope” and “we did it” on the fabric along with “Mom” inside of a crude rendering of a Nike swoosh. The street-style nature of the shoe’s aesthetic makes for a compelling look, as does the symbolic nature of the hand-drawn logo of such a massive sports brand onto the shoes of a Paralympic athlete.