The 2024 Paris Paralympics promise to be a ‘landmark’ celebration of sport with Great Britain sending its highest ever representation of female athletes, organisers have said.
Some 215 GB athletes are taking part in the Games, which kick off tonight when the opening ceremony is held. An estimated 65,000 spectators will be watching the athletes from more than 180 countries march along the Champs-Elysees to Place de la Concorde before the competitions start tomorrow.
It is the first time in the history of the Paralympics that the opening ceremony, which starts at 6pm UK time, takes place outside a stadium.
Wheelchair basketball player Terry Bywater and wheelchair tennis athlete Lucy Shuker said they were “humbled” after being chosen as Great Britain’s flagbearers at the ceremony.
Paris 2024 promises to be the most gender balanced in history, with 46 per cent of Team GB’s athletes female — the highest ever proportion.
The swimming squad includes 13-year-old Iona Winnifrith, from Tonbridge in Kent, the youngest member in the Paralympics GB team and one of 14 teenagers overall. Just as in Tokyo three years ago, Paralympics GB will be represented in 19 of the 22 Paralympic sports that make up the Games schedule, while cycling, canoe and rowing will all have their largest squads ever in the French capital.
The eldest athlete on the team for Paris is 54-year-old Para canoe multiple medallist Jeanette Chippington, from Taplow in Buckinghamshire, who will compete at her eighth Games since making her debut in swimming at Seoul 1988.
Penny Briscoe, Chef de Mission for Paralympics GB at Paris 2024, said: “We are days away from the start of what I believe will be a spectacular celebration of para sport at the most competitive Paralympic Games ever.
“Paris 2024 promises to be a landmark Paralympic Games with our highest representation of female athletes ever and a host of talented athletes seeking to achieve personal best performances in one of the world’s great cities.”
Alongside the 81 Games débutantes in the Paralympics GB team, there are 49 Paralympic champions hoping to add to their medal collection in Paris over the 11 days of competition. Leading the way in Games appearances is Dame Sarah Storey. Dame Sarah, one of nine reigning Paralympic champions in GB’s cycling squad for Paris, won three events at Tokyo 2020 to take her gold medal tally to 17.
Paralympics GB made history at Tokyo 2020, winning medals across 18 sports — the most of any nation ever — to finish second on the medal table behind China with 124 medals overall.
