All ready to Paris In my opinion 2024 Paralympic Gamesafter the conclusion of the Olympic Games on August 11. The opening ceremony will take place on the Champs-Élysées and Place de la Concorde on Wednesday 28 and the closing ceremony will take place on Sunday 8 September at the Stade de France.
Italy's numbers: 141 athletes, the largest delegation ever at the Paralympic Games
THE'Italy participates with a record delegation of 141 athletes (70 female athletes and 71 male athletes), well 26 more than Tokyo 2021in 17 disciplines, there are two more years than three years: this is the the largest delegation ever seen at the Paralympic Games. Italians will compete in the following disciplines: athletics, badminton, canoeing, rowing, cycling, equestrian, judo, swimming, fencing, sitting volleyball, weightlifting, taekwondo, wheelchair tennis, table tennis, shooting, archery, triathlon.
The Italian team that will participate in the Paris Games has an average age of 33.5 years. There will be 52 rookies, about 37% of the Italian team, and the youngest athlete is Giuliana Chiara Filippi (athletics), born in 2005.
Three years agoAt the end of an atypical edition due to the lack of public, and memorable for the successes, they arrived safely in Italy 69 medals (a record number, just behind Rome 1960 where there were 80).
Mission leader leads largest Italian expedition ever Juri Stara with the two flag bearers Ambra Sabatini (athletics) e Luca Mazzone (cycling), who will parade at the head of the team.
Ambra Sabatini (RaiNews.it)
The dominant figure in digital terms, both in France and in Japan, is the I swimpresent with 28 athletes, a discipline in which the greatest hopes for a medal are placed. In Tokyo 39 podiums obtained by our swimmers (11 gold, 16 silver, 12 bronze), an excellent result, which preceded the even more extraordinary ones obtained at the 2023 World Cup in Manchester and the 2024 European Championships in Funchal. And always in Tokyo, it has always been the case. a swimmer, the most decorated Italian athlete, Stefano Raimondiseven times on the podium (1 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze). It is also worth highlighting the extraordinary performances of Simone Barlaam (1 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze), Carlotta Gilli (2 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze), Giulia Terzi (2 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze), Antonio Fantin (1 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze), Francesco Bocciardo (2 gold and 1 silver), Francesca Xenia Palazzo (1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze) e Monica Boggioni (3 bronzes).
There are also many medal hopesathletics and of bikeThe first discipline, the “queen” of the Games, can count on the fastest athletes in the world in the T63 category: Ambra Sabatini, Martina Caironi And Monica Contrafattorespectively gold, silver and bronze at Tokyo 2021 in the 100 meters. They will be there too Assunta Legnante (1 gold medal at London 2012 and 1 gold medal at Rio 2016 in the shot put, 2 silver medals at Tokyo 2021 in the discus and shot put) and Oney Tapia (1 silver medal at Rio 2016 in the discus, 2 bronze medals at Tokyo 2021 in the shot put and discus).
Several young promises like Maxcel Amo Manu, winner of 2 gold medals at the Paris 2023 World Championships in the 100 and 200 meters, and Rigivan Ganeshamoorthy.
In cycling, the spotlight is on the other standard-bearer Mazzone, one of the veterans, who has 3 gold and 3 silver medals from Rio 2016 to Tokyo 2021 as well as 2 silver in swimming at Sydney 2000 (in this discipline he also participated in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008).
Baby Vio (Mattel Press Office)
Francesca Porcellato will celebrate her twelfth participation in Paris at the Paralympic Games between athletics, Nordic skiing and cycling. In total, the Venetian champion won 2 gold, 3 silver and 6 bronze in athletics, 1 gold in Nordic skiing, 1 silver and 2 bronze in cycling. With them, among others, Mirko Testa, Eleonora Mele, Fabrizio Corneglian and Katia Aere.
Beatrice baby Vio Grandis will lead the team fencingThe Italian has 2 gold medals, 1 silver and 1 bronze in two participations in the Games, from Rio 2016 to Tokyo 2021. Combat sports are also to follow, with Antonino Bossolo in taekwondo and the judo team, which can hope for medals from Carolina Costa and Dongdong Camanni.
Paris 2024 will also mark the first time badminton was at the Gameswith only one athlete, Rosa Efomo De Marco, defending the blue colours. From the Rome 1960 Games to Tokyo 2021, Italy has won 599 medals (167 gold, 202 silver, 230 bronze). The discipline with the most medals, from 1960 to today, is athletics, with 185, followed by swimming with 167 and fencing with 94.
Luca Pancalli, President of the Italian Paralympic Committee leaving for the Paris Paralympic Games at Fiumicino Airport, Rome (Handle)
The program and the figures. Pancalli and Locatelli present at the opening ceremony
The Paralympic Games programme includes 22 sports, 23 disciplines different e 549 events spread over the 11 days of competition. Overall, they are expected 4,400 athletes, 2,500 companions, 184 delegations. The date is set for tomorrow, when the eyes of athletes, and not only them, from all over the world will turn to the third most followed event in the world, after the Olympic Games and the Football World Cup.
And to whom? Luca PancalliIPC President, approaches with the spirit of someone who knows that repeating the feat in Tokyo will be difficult, but not impossible.The ambition to improve is still therewhile being aware that Tokyo was the greatest achievement of all time. The bar has been raised a lot, we are Also optimistic “Because all the federations and sports groups have been working well for several years,” said Pancalli, a few hours after the opening ceremony.
“In the Paralympic world – adds the Cip n°1 – there is a desire to contaminationin relation to the capacity of civil society to knowing how to look at people's abilities, not their disabilities. We, through sport, we learn to look at what remains and not what has been lost, “to provide equal opportunities for the expression of one's abilities. If this happened every day, in all areas of life, we would have achieved this equality of opportunity which is a not so hidden message from the Paralympic world” Pancalli further underlines.
And, speaking of disability, the Italian minister also Alessandra Locatelli He will be in Paris tomorrow and the day after for the Paralympic Games. On August 28, at 9:30 a.m., at UNESCO headquarters, the Minister will participate in the visit of Olympic torch. At 11:00 he will speak at the High-Level Ministerial Forum “International Conference on Disability Inclusion: Harnessing the Transformational Impact of Parasport”, co-organized by UNESCO and the International Paralympic Committee, while at 20:00 he will participate in the Opening Ceremony of the Games. On the morning of 29 August, Minister Locatelli will attend the sports competitions of the Italian athletes and at 19:00 she will participate in the inauguration of Casa Italia.