160 Australian athletes among 4,400 athletes in Paris for Paralympics

Australia (Commonwealth) _ When the 2024 Paralympic Games begin in Paris next week, the entire world will be watching. After the summer 2024 Olympics ended, Paris turned its attention to the upcoming summertime major athletic event, which is scheduled for August 28 to September 8.

About 4,400 competitors from throughout the globe participating in 23 different disciplines will be welcomed to Paris.

To make history, 160 Australian athletes competing in 17 different sports will go to the French capital. A remarkable 61 debutants are among them, many of whom the AIS has been pleased to encourage long before they become well-known brands.

Alexa Leary, a para-swimmer who currently holds the world record in the S9 100m, is one of nine new members of the 30-person Australian swimming squad.

Leary’s gold medal victory at the 2023 Para World Swimming Championships in Manchester earned her the title of Emerging Athlete of the Year at the 2023 AIS Sport victory Awards (ASPAs). After suffering a brain injury two years earlier and nearly losing her life, it was an amazing accomplishment.

Australia’s youngest athlete, 15-year-old Holly Warn, will be swimming alongside her. Earlier this month, her Gold Coast school organized a special send-off for her, with pupils constructing a green and gold tunnel to demonstrate their support. Along with several first-timers, the para athletics squad includes 16-year-old Telaya Blacksmith, a track standout who will compete in the T20 400m and long jump events.

Four athletes from First Nations people will be wearing green and gold in Paris, including Blacksmith. This many Indigenous athletes have represented Australia in Spain before, back in 1992.

The grateful adolescent from Warlpiri is one of several para athletes who have been awarded a Local Para Champions (LPC) grant by the ASC, which helps pay for travel expenses to regional, national, and worldwide sports events.

Three more debutants in paraathletics, Angus Hincksman, Mali Lovell, and Samuel Rizzo, have also benefited from the LPC award. Through the AIS, which was established to assist supplement athlete salaries, a significant number of budding stars have also been awarded direct athlete support (dAIS) grants.

Hani Watson and Ben Wright, the two parapowerlifting champions from Australia, are included in this. Watson has quickly risen through the ranks and is someone to keep an eye on after winning the 2021 World Para Powerlifting Championships and shattering the Oceania record with a lift of 120 kg in the +86 category.

The Opening Ceremony of the Paris Paralympic Games will not be conducted inside a conventional stadium, but rather at the Champs-Elysées and the Place de la Concorde. On Thursday, August 28, Australian fans may tune in starting at 4:00 am AEST.

The Paralympic opening ceremony will take place at the historic Place de la Concorde on Wednesday, which is the first time the event will take place outside of a stadium.

After the summer 2024 Olympics ended, Paris turned its attention to the Paralympics, which will be held in France from August 28 to September 8. In the Olympic lull, organizers are setting up locations for wheelchair rugby and paraathletics competitions.

After the Games ended on August 11, the Place de la Concorde, which was the scene of Olympic skating, breaking, and 3×3 basketball, has been a flurry of building activity.

The Paralympic opening ceremony will take place on the historic square on Wednesday, the first time the competition will be staged outside of a stadium. Tony Estanguet, the president of Paris 2024, hopes to keep the excitement going from the Olympics while also bringing attention to prejudice against people with disabilities.

At the UK community of Stoke Mandeville, where the Paralympic torch started its journey to Paris, he remarked, “We wish to see how, at our level and with humility, we could contribute to changing this view of disability.” For the Paralympics, the majority of Olympic venues will still be in use.

Para-equestrian competitions will take place in the Palace of Versailles, wheelchair fencing will take place at the Grand Palais, and beach volleyball matches will now take place in the area under the Eiffel Tower with blind football—a version of soccer intended for players with vision impairments.

In order to guarantee that the heightened security measures stay in place, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced the deployment of around 25,000 police personnel throughout the Paralympics. Armed police officers monitored important sites.

With tens of thousands of spectators and thousands of athletes expected, the opening ceremony is expected to be a groundbreaking spectacle, according to the organizers.