The Paralympic Games are right around the corner. After the massive success of the Indian contingent at the Tokyo Olympics, cameras have now shifted to the Para-athletes who will look to put their best foot forward at the Summer games.
Indian para-athletes have taken part in every Paralympic Games since the 1984 edition. With the nation's largest-ever contingent of 54 members set to represent India, the country will certainly count on these heroes to bring back a few glittering medals. India's previous best performance at the Paralympic Games was at the Rio Games in 2016, where the country bagged two gold, one silver and one bronze.
This year, India will participate in 9 different disciplines - Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Shooting, Table Tennis, Para canoeing, Swimming, Powerlifting and Taekwondo. 2016 Rio gold medalist Mariyappan Thangavelu will carry the Indian flag at the Paralympic Games.
Here's a comprehensive list of all Indian athletes who can be seen in action along with their schedule and timings in IST:
Men's Recurve Individual Open - Harvinder Singh, Vivek Chikara
Men's Compound Individual Open - Rakesh Kumar, Shyam Sundar Swami
Women's Compound Individual Open - Jyoti Baliyan
Compound Mixed Team Open - Jyoti Baliyan & TBC
Men's Singles SL3 - Pramod Bhagat, Manoj Sarkar
Women's Singles SU5 - Palak Kohli
Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 - Pramod Bhagat & Palak Kohli
Men's Singles SL4 - Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj, Tarun Dhillon
Men's Singles SS6 - Krishna Nagar
Women's Singles SL4 - Parul Parmar
Women's Doubles SL3-SU5 - Parul Parmar & Palak Kohli
Women's VL2 - Prachi Yadav
Men's 65kg - Jaideep Deswal
Women's 50kg - Sakina Khatun
200 Individual Medley SM7 - Suyash Jadhav
50m Butterfly S7 - Suyash Jadhav, Niranjan Mukundan
Individual C3 - Sonalben Madhubhai Patel
Individual C4 - Bhavina Hasmukhbhai Patel
Women's K44 -49kg - Aruna Tanwar
Men's R1 – 10 m air rifle standing SH1 - Swaroop Mahavir Unhalkar, Deepak Saini
Women's R2 – 10 m air rifle SH1 - Avani Lekhara
Men's P1 – 10 m air pistol SH1 - Manish Narwal, Deepender Singh, Singhraj
Women's P2 – 10 m air pistol SH1 - Rubina Francis
Mixed R3 – 10 m air rifle prone SH1 - Deepak Saini, Sidhartha Babu & Avani Lekhara
Mixed P3 - 25 m pistol SH1 - Akash & Rahul Jakhar
Men's R7 - 50 m rifle 3 positions SH1 - Deepak Saini
Women's R8 – 50 m rifle 3 positions SH1 - Avani Lekhara
Mixed P4 – 50 m pistol SH1 - Akash, Manish Narwal & Singhraj
Mixed R6 – 50 m rifle prone SH1 - Deepak Saini, Avani Lekhara & Sidhartha Babu
Men's Javelin Throw F57 - Ranjeet Bhati
Men's Discus Throw F52 - Vinod Kumar
Men's High Jump T47 - Nishad Kumar, Ram Pal
Men's Discus Throw F56 - Yogesh Kathuniya
Men's Javelin Throw F46 - Sundar Singh Gurjar, Ajeet Singh, Devendra Jhajharia
Men's Javelin Throw F64 - Sumit Antil, Sandeep Choudhary
Men's High Jump T63 - Sharad Kumar, Mariyappan Thangavelu, Varun Singh Bhati
Women's 100m T13 - Simran
Women's Shot Put F34 - Bhagyashri Madavrao Jadhav
Men's Club Throw F51 - Dharambir Nain, Amit Kumar Saroha
Men's Shot Put F35 - Arvind Malik
Men's High Jump T64 - Praveen Kumar
Men's Javelin Throw F54 - Tek Chand
Men's Shot Put F57 - Soman Rana
Women's Club Throw F51 - Ekta Bhyan, Kashish Lakra
Men's Javelin Throw F41 - Navdeep Singh
Notably, Badminton and Taekwondo would make their Paralympics debut at Tokyo. Team India has 7 athletes partaking in the Badminton events, and one in Taekwono. Given the size and the talent of the contingent this year, multiple medals can be expected from the nation's differently-abled heroes.