Among the big global names in Paris is Brazil’s Petrucio Ferreira, the fastest Paralympian in the world, who will be hoping to retain his T47 100m title. His world record stands at 10.29 seconds.
Germany’s Markus Rehm – known as the Blade Jumper – is going for his fourth Paralympic long jump title in the T64 category.
His world record of 8.72m is the ninth longest jump of all time. His 2024 best is 8.44m – a distance which would have won Olympic silver in Paris and gold at the previous four Games.
Also in Para-athletics, Valentina Petrillo is set to become the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the Paralympics, having been selected to represent Italy in the women’s T12 classification for athletes with visual impairments.
Petrillo, who transitioned in 2019 and will run in the 200m and 400m, told BBC Sport that her participation at the Games would be an “important symbol of inclusion”.
However, in 2021, more than 30 female athletes signed a petition that was sent to the president of the Italian Athletics Federation and the ministries for Equal Opportunities and Sport challenging Petrillo’s right to compete in women’s races.
As with the Olympics, Russia and its ally Belarus are banned from sending athletes to the Games amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
However, some Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to take part as neutrals – the Neutral Paralympic Athletes (NPA) delegation will feature up to 90 competitors from Russia and eight from Belarus.
All NPA were independently vetted to ensure they have not supported the war and are not contracted to the military.
There will be eight athletes representing the Paralympic Refugee Team with Zakia Khudadadi taking to the mat in the K44 -47kg Para-taekwondo event on the first day of action on Thursday. Born in Afghanistan, she represented her country in Tokyo after being safely evacuated in the days prior to the Games.
Three countries – Eritrea, Kiribati and Kosovo – will be represented in the Paralympics for the first time.
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