TNN/Agencies
Doha
Para athletes Sara Masud and Ali Arshad will be proudly representing Qatar at the Paris 2024 Paralympics which begins Wednesday and will be held from August 28-September 8.
The 38-year-old Sara has been an accomplished shot put athlete for Qatar having won silver at the Rio Paralympic Games in 2016 besides a silver at the World Para Athletics Championships in London in 2017. She won gold at the 2014 Asian Para Games in Incheon and later claimed sulver in 2018 at the Asian Para Games in Jakarta.
The much younger, 20-year-old Ali will be competing in wheelchair racing having won a bronze at the Hangzhou Asian Para Games in 2022. He also won a silver and two bronze medals at the West Asian Para Games in Bahrain in 2022.
Refugee Paralympic
Team set to shine
Meanwhile, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has announced that T11 Para athletics sprinter Guillaume Junior Atangana will be the Refugee Paralympic Team’s flagbearer at Wednesday’s Opening Ceremony.
Representing more than 120 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, the eight athletes and two guide runners form the largest Refugee Paralympic Team (RPT) ever, after the team made its debut at the Rio 2016 Paralympics with two athletes.
The RPT will take centre stage, marching along the Champs-Élysées into Paris’ iconic Place de la Concorde. Speaking on his selection as the team’s flagbearer, Atangana said: "I am very moved and happy. It gives me shivers. I can already picture it in my head. I see myself as a big champion, the one who made his dreams come true.”
Atangana will be carrying the Paralympic flag alongside his running guide and fellow refugee, Donard Ndim Nyamjua.
Atangana thought his dreams of being a great sportsman were over when he lost his eyesight as a child, but he turned to Para athletics and sprinting. He finished fourth in the 400m T11 at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, just missing out on a medal.
The eight refugee athletes are hosted in six countries and will compete across six sports – Para athletics, Para powerlifting, Para table tennis, Para taekwondo, Para triathlon, and wheelchair fencing.
The first RPT member to compete on day one will be Para taekwondo star Zakia Khudadadi, the European champion in 2023 in the 47kg division.
Khudadadi is an advocate for the rights of women around the world and made headlines after a harrowing escape from her country just days before Tokyo 2020. This is the third time the Refugee Paralympic Team will compete at the Games. Despite being forced to flee their homes and facing huge obstacles, the team members persisted and kept their dreams alive, securing a place at the Games.
Andrew Parsons, President of the International Paralympic Committee, delivered the news to Atangana personally in a video call at the team’s training camp in Reims, France.
"You were chosen because of your history, the athlete you are. You are an important example to other refugee athletes and other athletes from different parts of the world that been through what you’ve been through,” said Parsons.
Germany enter Games
with high hopes
Germany’s team is entering the Paris Paralympics with a team of 143 athletes and amid hopes to return into the top 10 in the final medal table.
Long jumper Markus Rehm, triathlete Max Gelhaar and veteran thrower Martina Willing are among the stars of the team that also features 57 debutants.
Germany won 43 medals at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, including 13 golds, which put them 12th in the final tally.
Julius Beucher, president of Germany’s Paralympic Committee, hopes for a return into the top 10 in Paris, without calling for a certain amount of silverware.
"From a sporting perspective, we hope that the athletes will be able to deliver exactly what they have been training for years and deliver their best performance in fair competition with their international rivals,” he said.
In all, some 4,400 athletes from 182 countries will be competing for 549 gold medals in 22 sports from Thursday onwards, with the opening ceremony on Wednesday at Place de la Concorde.
Athletes include 90 Russians and eight from Belarus who are allowed to compete as neutrals in individual events, just like at the Paris Olympics which ended on August 11.