The 2024 Paralympic Games is about to commence in Paris. Over the course of 11 days, thousands of the world’s best athletes will vie for medals in 549 events.
The Games will feature competitions in 22 different sports, including individual and team sports. Here is the list of all the sports included in the Paralympics:
Para Archery
Men and women with physical disabilities may compete standing or in a wheelchair. The event will begin with a ranking round wherein archers fire 72 arrows over 50m or 70m.
Para Athletics
In the marathon, jumping competitions, and track events, competitors can compete with a throwing seat, prosthetic limbs, or a wheelchair (with three wheels).
Para Badminton
Depending on the severity of their impairment, players can participate as singles and couples and are split into six classes (two standing and four in wheelchairs).
Blind Football
A version of football with an audio ball designed for players with visual impairments.
Boccia
Athletes in wheelchairs with severe impairments affecting their motor function compete in a sport where their objective is to roll or throw balls as near to a little white ball known as the “jack”.
Para Canoe
Para athletes race in single-seater boats with a wider bottom for more stability across a distance of 200 metres.
Para Cycling
Athletes ride different bicycles, handcycles, tricycles, and tandems, depending on the type of impairment they have.
Para Equestrian
The para dressage competition consists of three tests: the individual championship test, the team test, in which riders follow a predetermined routine set to music, and the individual freestyle test, in which riders select their own music and routine.
Goalball
For the blind and visually handicapped, goalball is a team sport. In an attempt to score, the attacking team rolls a ball with internal bells quickly across the floor in the direction of the rival goal, which is being guarded by their opponent.
Para Judo
When trying to throw their opponent to the ground, pin them with a pinning hold, or submit them with a joint lock or choke, judokas with visual impairments are required to maintain grip on their opponent’s judogi throughout the entire fight.
Para Powerlifting
A bench press competition with 10 weight divisions for both genders.
Para Rowing
Based on their gender and handicap category, rowers compete in four 2,000-metre events; boats with fixed seats are available for rowers without leg function.
Shooting Para Sport
Competitors fire from 10m, 25m, and 50m distances in rifle and pistol events. They can stand, kneel, use an elbow support table, or sit in a wheelchair or shooting seat.
Sitting Volleyball
Two teams of six players slide across the court using their arms to maintain their seated position in this smaller volleyball match with a lower net.
Para Swimming
Over a range of distances, athletes compete in the breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly, freestyle, and medley.
Para Table Tennis
Athletes with a variety of disabilities now participate in the sport, which was formerly restricted to wheelchair-bound competitors. In both singles and doubles, the match is decided in the best of five sets.
Para Taekwondo
A single-round competition is held for athletes who are limited in one or both upper limbs. Points are earned by striking the opponent in the chest.
Para Triathlon
Athletes run 5 km, bike 20 km, and swim 750 metres. In the transition zones of the event, a handler helps athletes in the seated class who use a handcycle. On the bike, athletes with visual impairments ride in tandem with a guide.
Wheelchair Basketball
Played on a court and hoop the same size as Olympic basketball, players risk a penalty for travelling if they don’t pass or bounce the ball every two pushes of the wheels on their chairs.
Wheelchair Fencing
In foil, épée, and sabre competitions, wheelchair-using competitors use a customized frame that is fixed to the ground, keeping them in close proximity to their rivals.
Wheelchair Rugby
A mixed-gender team sport in which players with varying degrees of paralysis in all four limbs compete. Carrying the ball across the opponent’s try line is the goal of the intensely physical sport known as “Murderball,” which is played in specially made manual wheelchairs.
Wheelchair Tennis
Athletes with lower limb impairments, as well as those with upper and lower limb disabilities, can compete in singles and doubles matches; the ball is allowed to bounce twice before it must be returned.
Source: NBC