Suzanne Edwards is a manual wheelchair user who works for Airbnb as the accessibility standards lead. Airbnb is a Worldwide Partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, so Edwards has had an inside view of the Paris Paralympics. We caught up with her mid-Games to see what it’s like working, traveling, and cheering on your favorite sports at the Paralympics as a wheelchair user.

You got to experience being a part of the Paralympic torch relay. What was that like?

I’ll start with just what an honor, an absolute privilege it was to be a part of such a huge event. My section in the torch relay was just a few hours before the opening ceremony, so there were loads of people that were out and about. They were waving. They were cheering. They wanted pictures. Just an incredible experience.

You’re put on a bus with your group of torch bearers. You start at a meeting point and they give you the uniform, a white sort-of-tracksuit and tell you what to do.  Your group gets on the bus, and you travel the torch route a little ways ahead of the torch and the bus drops each of you off at various locations. I was lucky enough to have Jackie Chan as part of my group. He was lovely and happy to take photos with everyone. He was fascinated with how they clamped down my wheelchair in the bus and started filming it on his phone. So there’s a little film of them clamping down my wheelchair on Jackie Chan’s phone.

You get dropped off about 5-10 minutes before your segment, and you have what they call a “torch angel,” who chaperones you to make sure you’re not going to mess up because there are some logistics involved, like you hold it with your right hand and you turn to the left, and then front and then to the right, and then you start your run. I was fairly nervous because the torch is fairly heavy and holding it out and up with one arm means I have to hold on with my other arm because my core is a bit wobbly. I had metal arm clamped to my wheelchair to hold the torch while I was pushing, and the road was smooth and flat but there was one large crack in the middle of the road, and I was like, “I’m going to have to straddle this and make sure I don’t mess up.” Little things like that are very nerve-wracking when you have so many eyes on you.

No mishaps though! Someone even had a baby that they wanted me to wave to. It was a very surreal moment of feeling a bit famous for a second.

How did you get to Paris?

I traveled to Paris from London by train. I live in England, so I wanted to take the train because transportation can be so challenging as a wheelchair user, and flying is always hit or miss. The Eurostar train is just incredible. They have thought about accessibility a lot, and you get some perks as a wheelchair user. You get into the business lounge in the terminal, and you get discounted seats in Standard Premier or Business Premier, which means that you get free food and a free drink. There are accessible bathrooms on board, and you get to preboard and stay in your wheelchair while you’re traveling. All the small things add up to a really dignified and pleasant experience.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Suzanne (@_suzanne.edwards)

The other perk is that the train takes you from central London to central Paris, so I didn’t have the hassle of airport transfers.

What’s it been like navigating Paris as a wheelchair user?

Once in Paris, it’s been really easy getting around. I’ve been using G7, a taxi company in Paris, and they’ve been incredible. You can book a wheelchair ramp vehicle — they’re called WAVs — and you can book one of them on their app, which is great. You can either schedule a pickup time or request one right away. The longest we’ve had to wait is maybe 10 minutes. More wheelchair accessible taxis are one of the accessible infrastructure improvements that Paris has made for the Games, so it’s been really nice to be able to benefit from that.

Otherwise, I’ve been doing a lot of wheeling myself. My shoulders are a little tired, but it’s good exercise. The sidewalks are really wide, and Paris is quite a compact city, so you can get from A to B really easily if you want to wheel around. I’ve got a Tri Ride, a front wheel electric trike attachment for my chair, that I’ll use if I know I’m going to be out on the streets a lot, but even if a taxi is dropping us off and I have to wheel a half mile, it’s been quite easy — smooth, wide pavement and the curb cuts are all pretty decent. Obviously, many parts of Paris can be quite cobbled, as it’s such an old, historic city, but all the main areas that I’ve been to for the Paralympics have been great.

You’ve been able to spend some time in the Athlete Village. What’s that been like?

It’s incredible. I’m lucky because I get to be having fun on both a work and a personal level. For work, it’s been an honor to have a booth in the Athlete Village. Airbnb offers all eligible athletes competing in Paris 2024 the Airbnb500, a $500 celebratory grant they can use on Airbnb, so part of my job is to meet athletes at our booth and make sure they’re aware of it and show them how to redeem it. It’s been great because I’ve been able to meet a ton of athletes and hear their stories. I got to meet a couple of Italian Paralympians who have a home just outside of Milan and they list it on Airbnb, so they were showing me the listing. We’ve been making an effort to get more people with disabilities to host their homes on Airbnb, so it’s been fun meeting athletes who are already doing that.

We also have the Airbnb Athlete Travel Grant, a $2,000 grant that athletes can apply for each year to support them as they travel, train and compete.  I got to meet one woman who was a recipient of that. She’s a runner who is visually impaired from Mauritius, and she used the grant to travel to the Boston Marathon, and that’s where she qualified for the Paris Games. So that was really cool to hear. 

On a personal level, it’s fantastic because I love sports and I love being around other athletes. My granny actually won a Junior Wimbledon and played squash for England, so I’ve been around a lot of female sporting people in my family. I grew up playing squash and tennis, and after my accident I was stubborn about playing adaptive sports because I didn’t think I’d like them. But about three or four years after my accident, I tried wheelchair tennis, and as soon as I hit the first shot I was absolutely hooked. I played a lot. The physical side of it was huge, but just being around other athletes and seeing that they had jobs, they had partners, they had lives, really helped me come to terms with my accident.

Being here in Paris and getting to meet so many athletes in the village shows how powerful sport can be. There are so many different disabilities, so many different abilities, just every kind of person from every kind of background, but what everyone has in common is sport. That’s just amazing to see and so fun to be a part of.

Where are you staying?

I work for Airbnb, so of course I’m staying in an Airbnb. We’re incredibly proud of the work that we’ve done to make sure that we have 1,000 listings with step-free accessibility features in the Paris region  for people to stay in during the Olympics and Paralympics. These listings have step-free access to get inside and are step-free to the bathroom and a bedroom, and nearly 300 also have at least one bathroom modification, like grab bars or a shower seat. It was a huge, cross-functional effort across Airbnb, and we knew that it was important for the city of Paris, the International Paralympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee, and important for our legacy to help offer people more accessible places to stay after the Games are over.

I’m staying in one of those listings — a fairly modern studio apartment not too far from the Eiffel Tower. In addition to step-free features, it also has a roll-in shower, and grab bars in the shower and by the toilet.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Suzanne (@_suzanne.edwards)

There’s a boulangerie on the corner, about a 150-foot roll from the entrance to the building where I’m staying, so I go there most mornings to get a pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant) and a freshly squeezed orange juice because I always seem to be on the run to head somewhere. On the other corner there is a nice restaurant, and the owner comes out and waves to us every time we are leaving the apartment. It makes me feel like a local.

And the actual competition? What sports are you excited to see?

I’ve been watching wheelchair tennis today, and the atmosphere is really great. The crowds are pretty full, and a huge portion of the ticket sales have been to French people so there’s huge cheering whenever a French athlete is on the court. Everyone is really embracing the Games being in Paris, and it’s awesome.

I got to watch a few players that I know from when I played wheelchair tennis. Being able to see them play in Roland Garros (the famous stadium that hosts the French Open), playing a sport on the biggest stage in the world has been a special moment for me.

I’m really excited for all the sports. I’ve never seen wheelchair rugby in person, and I have tickets to see Great Britain play France. I’m very keen to see wheelchair fencing, which is at the Grand Palais, one of the many beautiful, iconic locations in Paris. I’ve also heard that blind football is fantastic, and that’s in front of the Eiffel Tower. It’s just going to be a case of how many sports can I squeeze into a limited number of days.