After a two-week break, Paris is the centre of the sporting world once again as the Paralympic Games begin in the French capital.
The games start with the opening ceremony through the streets of the city at 7pm (6pm UK) on 28 August and events the following morning.
Around 4,400 athletes from 180 countries are taking part across two weeks, 22 sports, and 18 venues, ending with the closing ceremony on 8 September. Here is everything you need to know.
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Paralympic flame lit ahead of Games
What sports are there?
There are 28 Paralympic sports in total – but only 22 make up the Paris Games.
The other six Paralympic winter sports – Alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, ice sledge hockey, snowboarding, and wheelchair curling – will be fought out at the 2026 Winter Games in Italy.
The summer sports are:
Para archery
Para athletics
Para badminton
Blind football
Boccia
Para canoe
Para cycling
Para equestrian
Goalball
Para judo
Para powerlifting
Para rowing
Shooting para sport
Sitting volleyball
Para swimming
Para table tennis
Para taekwondo
Para triathlon
Wheelchair basketball
Wheelchair fencing
Wheelchair rugby
Wheelchair tennis
What are the Paralympic-only sports?
Boccia is similar to boules or pétanque, whereby athletes try to get a soft leather ball closest to the ‘jack’.
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Image: GB’s Claire Taggart plays boccia at the Tokyo Paralympic Games. Pic: Reuters
It became a Paralympic sport in 1984 and is designed for people with impaired locomotor function.
They can throw, kick, or use a ramp to launch the ball on to the court, which is a similar size to those used for badminton.
Goalball is the other sport at Paris 2024 with no Olympic equivalent.
Image: Japanese goalball players take on Brazil at the Tokyo Paralympic Games. Pic: Reuters
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It is designed for athletes with visual impairments, whereby those who have partial sight are blindfolded for fairness. It was invented in 1946 as a means of rehabilitation for Second World War veterans who had lost their sight.
Teams of threes try to throw a ball with bells inside it into the opposing team’s goal. Participants use ear-hand coordination to locate the ball.
How do Paralympic classifications work?
There are 10 impairment types, which help determine which class within each sport a Paralympian competes in.
The impairment categories are: impaired muscle power, passive range of movement, limb deficiency, leg-length difference, short stature, hypertonia (increased muscle tension), ataxia (uncoordinated movement), athertosis (slow, involuntary movements), vision impairment, and intellectual impairment.
Each sport class has minimum impairment criteria that athletes must be eligible for.
Some sports only have one class – such as para powerlifting – while most have several to ensure fair competition.
Para athletics, for example, has more than 50 classes.
Are there any new sports?
Para canoe and para triathlon were introduced in Rio 2016. While para badminton and para taekwondo were new at Tokyo 2020.
But there are no new Paralympic sports in Paris this year.
Image: Members of the Refugee Paralympic para taekwondo team ahead of the Paris Games. Pic: Reuters
How many medals are up for grabs?
Paralympians will compete for 549 gold medals and 1,647 in total.
ParalympicsGB did not qualify for blind football, goalball, or sitting volleyball, which means they wil only contest 19 of the 22 sports.
What about ParalympicsGB?
There are 215 Paralympians from Great Britain and Northern Ireland – 46% are female, which makes the Paris Games the most gender-balanced in history.
The youngest is 13-year-old Iona Winnifrith who will compete in para swimming, and the oldest is 54-year-old para canoeist Jeanette Chippington.
This is Chippington’s eighth Paralympic Games, having made her debut at the Seoul 1988 para swimming. She has won five medals, including two golds in 1996. She started competing as a para canoeist in 2013.
Image: Jeanette Chippington after winning gold in the women’s canoe sprint KL1 event in Rio de Janiero. Pic: Reuters
Image: Iona Winnifrith at the Citi Para Swimming World Series in Sheffield in 2023. Pic: PA
Who are the ones to watch?
At Tokyo 2020, ParalympicsGB came second in the final medal table, with 41 golds, 38 silvers, and 45 bronzes, behind China’s 96 golds and total of 207.
The team did best in cycling in Tokyo, with all 20 athletes winning at least one medal.
Dame Sarah Storey became GB’s most decorated Paralympian at those games, reaching a career total of 17 gold medals. She’s also a swimmer, but is sticking to cycling this time.
Image: Dame Sarah Storey after winning gold in the women’s C5 time trial cycling in Tokyo. Pic: PA
Kadeena Cox won four golds in Tokyo. She has also competed in swimming but is also focusing solely on cycling in Paris.
Image: Kadeena Cox at the World Championships in Glasgow in 2023. Pic: Reuters
Thomas Young will defend the title of men’s 100m T38 Paralympic champion – having secured gold last time. He finished second at the World Para Athletics Championships this year in Japan.
Rachel Choong is currently world number one at para badminton. She is returning after an eight-year hiatus because her class was not included in the games. She currently holds 10 world titles.
Matt Bush only started para taekwondo in 2017, winning a world title two years later – the first British man to do so. He missed Tokyo 2020 due to injury but is back at the +80kg K44 event.
Samantha Kinghorn is competing in four para athletics events in Paris – the 100m, 400m, and 800m in the T53 category, and 100m in T54. She won silver in the 400m T53 in Tokyo and bronze in the 100m. She will be going for gold this time around.
Paris 2024 is William Ellard’s Paralympic debut. At 18 he’s already won gold and silver medals in events at the world championships last year. He will compete in the 100m butterfly S14, 200m freestyle S14, 100m backstroke, and 200m individual medley.
Image: William Ellard at the Citi Para Swimming World Series in Sheffield in 2023. Pic: PA
Double Paralympic champion Jonnie Peacock will be one to watch for the T64 100m.
Image: Jonnie Peacock during the men’s 100m T64 race in Tokyo. Pic: PA
Across the Paralympic team sports, boccia champion David Smith and the wheelchair rugby team will be looking to retain their titles.
Who are the global stars to keep an eye on?
The men’s 100m T64 race will be tightly contested on 2 September. Italy’s Maxcel Amo Manu is the reigning champion, but Felix Streng of Germany and Sherman Guilty of Costa Rica are also major contenders.
Elsewhere on the track, Valentina Petrillo of Italy will become the first transgender athlete to compete at the Paralympics in the 400m T12.
Image: Italy’s Valentina Petrillo trains near Bologna in Italy. Pic: AP
Bebe Vio is another Italian to watch. The wheelchair fencer starred in the Rising Phoenix documentary on Netflix and will be hoping for a third Paralympic gold.
Image: Bebe Vio at the Cannes film festival in 2022. Pic: AP
Norway’s Birgit Skarstein has a world title in the women’s single sculls PR1 – and the para cross-country skiing at the Winter Paralympics. Norwegians will also know her from its version of Dancing With The Stars.
Oksana Masters of the USA has Paralympic medals in four sports – para rowing, cross-country skiing, biathlon, and cycling.
Image: Oksana Masters with her gold medals in April. Pic: Reuters
Indian Paralympic javelin champion Sumit Antil is a star in his home country. He won gold in the F64 in Tokyo and also has two world championship titles.
Where are the Paralympics taking place?
Eighteen venues used for the Olympics will also host Paralympic events.
Among the most iconic are the Eiffel Tower Stadium, where blind football will be played, the Chateau of Versailles, home to the para equestrian competition, and Roland Garros, where wheelchair tennis will be fought out.
Image: Paris’s Eiffel Tower Stadium, which will play host to blind football. Pic: Reuters
The Stade de France will host the para athletics, while the Grand Palais will be used for para taekwondo and para fencing.
Source : Sky News
