The Olympic Games may have come to a close, but Tokyo is only half done with the mega sporting event. The Japanese capital city is gearing up to host the 2020 Paralympics Games later this month. The Tokyo Paralympics are set to kick off from August 24 and the 2020 edition will see thousands of athletes, coaches and teams from over a 100 countries descend in Tokyo to participate in 593 events across 22 disciplines which will be hosted across 21 venues.
The Indian contingent will comprise 54 para athletes, which is its largest ever till date. They will compete across nine sporting events/disciplines at the upcoming Tokyo Paralympics. The 2016 Rio Paralympics gold medalist Mariyappan Thangavelu (men’s high jump) has been selected as the country’s flag bearer in the opening ceremony. The Indian contingent will also feature two-time Paralympics gold-medalist Devendra Jhajharia (Javelin) among others who will be participating in the upcoming Games.
The 2016 Rio Paralympics was the country’s largest ever representation at the Games where 19 athletes represented India in five sport disciplines. It also ended up being the country’s best-enue performance, with a record haul of four medals – two gold, one silver and one bronze.
Earlier this year the Paralympic Committee of India’s (PCI) selection committee carried out a two-day trial at the Jawaharlal Nehru (JLN) Stadium for all athletes heading for Tokyo.
“We had to make some really bold decisions in the welfare of the athletes,” PCI president Deepa Malik, told ANI. Malik, who is a silver medalist from the 2016 Rio Games, added, “This year’s March National Meet was very important. There was a difficult time in getting the trials done, to be able to make the SOP, we want to thank the Sports Authority of India (SAI),” she further added. She also thanked the SAI secretary to have personally overlooked all the arrangements at the venue.
Paralympics is the quadrennial event for differently-abled athletes. It is similar to the Olympics and is also held and split into the Summer and Winter Games, which alternately occur every two years.
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