Following the Paris Olympics is no small feat, but the Paralympic Games, kicking off Wednesday, are set to deliver their own unforgettable moments.
Celebrating human resilience and triumph over adversity, the event will showcase about 4,400 athletes with diverse impairments competing in 549 events across 22 sports.
In the next two weeks, “insurmountable” won’t be part of the Parisian lexicon as these extraordinary athletes defy expectations and chase their dreams.
“If it seems impossible, then it can be done!” Italian fencer Bebe Vio says on her website.
She will be vying for her third consecutive gold medal in wheelchair fencing. After contracting meningitis as a child, doctors amputated both her forearms and both her legs at the knees to save her life.
Here's a look at some of the other events that athletes will be competing in at the Paralympics and how competitors are categorized based on their disability or impairment.
Of the 22 Paralympic sports, only two do not have an Olympic equivalent: goalball and boccia.
Goalball is played on an indoor court the size of a volleyball court with goals set up at each end. Teams of visually impaired or blind players (wearing eyeshades to ensure fairness) take turns rolling a ball containing bells toward the opposing goal while the defending team acts as goalkeepers.
In boccia, players throw or roll leather balls as close as possible to a small ball called a jack.
Other wheelchair sports include basketball, fencing, rugby and tennis.
The remaining sports are sitting volleyball, blind football, para archery, athletics, badminton, canoeing, cycling, equestrian, judo, powerlifting, rowing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo and triathlon.
Blind football, featuring teams of five playing with a ball containing rattles, will be played beside the Eiffel Tower.
To compete at the Paralympics, athletes must have “an underlying health condition that leads to a permanent eligible impairment,” according to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
Impairments can result from conditions such as cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, amputations, physical injuries, intellectual impairments, blindness, or reduced sight.
To ensure fair competition, athletes are grouped by how their impairment affects their ability to compete in their chosen sport.
The classifications aim to ensure that every competitor has a fair chance to win and that “sporting excellence determines which athlete or team is ultimately victorious,” the International Paralympic Committee says.
The Paralympics divide impairments into three groups: physical, visual and intellectual. Physical impairments are further divided into eight categories, including impaired muscle power, impaired range of movement, limb deficiency and short stature.
Each Paralympic sport determines which impairment types they have competitions for.
Some, like para-athletics and para-swimming, include competitions for athletes with every type of impairment, while others have just one category. For instance, goalball is only for teams of players who are blind or visually impaired.
All Paralympians undergo an assessment by a panel of experts to determine their sports class based on the degree and nature of their impairment. Each sport has its own criteria for assessing the eligibility of competitors. Some, like para powerlifting, have only one sports class, while para-athletics, open to athletes with any impairment, has more than 50 sports classes.
The classification system focuses on grouping athletes with similar functional abilities rather than similar disabilities, allowing athletes with different impairments to compete against each other if they are in the same sports class.
