Paralympics: 7 of the most outstanding athletes who will compete in Paris (and which ones are from Latin America)

Following the lights of the Paris 2024 Olympic games, another great sporting event is coming: the Paralympic Games.

Starting on August 28 and lasting a week and a half, nearly 4,400 athletes will compete in different disciplines adapted to each athlete’s sporting needs.

As has been the case since 1988, most of the venues where Olympic disciplines were held will be used to host the Paralympic events.

These games, which began in 1960, aim to open up a space for sporting competition for people with physical disabilities.

In this version there will be 549 events with medals.

Over the years, we have seen great sporting achievements such as the 55 medals won by the American swimmer Trischa Zorn or the feat of the Italian fencer Beba Vio, who won the gold medal in her discipline despite having neither legs nor arms.

Latin America has also had memorable performances. Mexico stands out with more than 300 medals, of which 104 are gold.

In recent years, delegations such as Colombia’s have had outstanding performances, such as the one in Tokyo 2020, where they managed to win 24 medals.

At BBC Mundo we want to show you the seven stars who will be taking part in the Paralympic Games, which begin on 28 August.

She is France’s great hope for the Paralympic Games, especially in the 100m T11 event (the events are divided according to the type of disability of the athletes).

Adolphe, 34, who was blind since birth, won silver at Tokyo 2020 and hopes to win his first gold medal in the competition’s top speed event at Paris 2024.

The sprinter is also known for his musical career. He is a well-known rapper on the French scene and released his first album in 2020, a year before the Tokyo Paralympics.

She is a legend of adapted swimming. In total, the Spanish swimmer has won 27 medals, seven of which are gold.

After losing mobility from the waist down in 1995 due to neuropathy, Perales – who has also been a politician – decided to devote herself to swimming.

His debut in Sydney 2000 was masterful: five medals. But it was in Athens 2004 where she really shone with six medals, two of them gold.

Due to his achievements, he has become one of the most well-known faces of Paralympic sport in his country and hopes to continue this work in Paris 2024.

“15 days to keep dreaming. 15 days to keep working very hard with a single objective, to give the best of ourselves and hope that this comes with a medal. Let’s go,” he wrote on his X account before traveling.

This 24-year-old Colombian is one of the continent’s biggest Paralympic stars.

Born in Bucaramanga, a city located about 350 kilometers north of Bogotá, He has managed to become one of the best Paralympic swimmers not only in the country but also in Latin America.

As a child, he was diagnosed with hypochondroplasia, which prevented his bones from fully developing. However, that did not stop him from winning seven Paralympic medals.

First three in Rio 2016 and then four in Tokyo 2020. Two of those medals are gold.

Thanks to his achievements, in 2022 was named the best Paralympic swimmer in the world.

He is one of the revelations in the T54 category (paraplegic people or people with disabilities in the lower limbs who can use their hands to propel a wheelchair) of the speed and middle distance events in athletics.

Alphonse is the first African to compete in the final of an athletics event at the Paralympic Games, having qualified for the 100m, 400m and 1,500m finals at Tokyo 2020.

She now hopes to win a medal, which would be the first for an African country in track and field events.

She is one of the great revelations of Paralympic athletics.

Frech, who is 19 and was born without part of his left leg and some of his fingers, has achieved several records that put him in first place to win the T63 high jump medal.

Last year he achieved the world recordl when he cleared 1.95 metres at the Paralympic Athletics World Championships.

Frech is also a motivational speaker, especially on the topic of pursuing a sport despite the physical obstacles you face.

Onye is another of the big stars of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, especially in shot put, discus and javelin in the F40 classification.

This Nigerian athlete She is one of the few athletes who has received medals in each of the events in which she has participated.

She also broke the world record in shot put. She has so far won the gold medal in her category at Rio 2016 and hopes to repeat her feat at Paris 2024.

Onye is also known for her work as an actress.

She is one of the great Mexican athletes.

In his discipline, weightlifting, Pérez has managed to win four gold medals (Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020).

“I feel very excited and satisfied to know that I am already part of the team that is going to Paris 2024 and as it is my seventh Paralympic event, today it is an honor for me to continue being part of the ranks of the Paralympic team.” powerlifting where we will have the opportunity to be among the eight best in the world,” he told the website of the National Commission for Physical Education and Sport, Conade.

Pérez will compete in the 61-kilo category, where he has reigned in recent years.

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