How come the olympic games have an opening / closing ceremony but the paralympics do not and are 2 weeks apar?

But they do, see the link below for the full Paralympic schedule including ceremonies.

The Paralympics do have both ceremonies. They're 2 weeks apart so that the venues can be altered for the Paralympic sports. They require different equipment, different seating positions and different camera angles etc. The branding also needs to be changed to the Paralympic branding.

I've seen the figure of £81m quoted as the budget for all four ceremonies. I've also seen £27m given as the cost of the Olympic opening ceremony. Assuming that the Olympic closing ceremony was significantly cheaper than the opening ceremony – it certainly looked it – then the budget for the two Paralympic ceremonies isn't much smaller than that for the Olympic ceremonies.

The Paralympics do have an opening ceremony & is being shown on Channel 4 Wednesday 29th August at 8pm-11.20pm. The Olympic Torch will have to be re-lit etc & the main reason for the two week delay is that a lot of venue's have to be altered from the main Olympic Venue to the Paralympic Venue.

The Paralympic world wide elite competition like the Olympic except for elite athlete with disabiltiy has it own torch relay and ceremony. There also change over like the sitting volleyball and goalball courts. Making sure the bathroom still works.

I understand the athletes are from Britain and so doesnt have the international interest. I dont watch sport at all but would find seeing anyone with no legs etc as very distressing.