The Agitos image takes its place on the water in Tokyo earlier than the beginning of the Video gamesVenue: Tokyo, Japan Dates: 24 August-5 September Time in Tokyo: BST +8Protection: Observe on Radio 5 Dwell and on the BBC Sport web site
The Tokyo Paralympics get underneath approach on Tuesday, with Covid-19 circumstances rising in Japan and all events acknowledging that there’s nonetheless a problem forward.
Delayed by a yr due to the pandemic and with supporters unable to attend other than a small variety of schoolchildren, these will likely be a special Video games to any earlier version.
However not solely do organisers need top-level competitors, in addition they need the Video games to play an enormous half in making Japanese society extra inclusive.
Tokyo is the primary metropolis to stage two Paralympic Video games, having hosted the 1964 version when 375 athletes from 21 nations took half in 9 sports activities.
This time, round 4,400 athletes from 162 nationwide Paralympic committees will compete in 539 medal occasions throughout 22 sports activities.
All will likely be keen to place the turbulent occasions of the previous 18 months behind them and present the remainder of the world what they’ll do as Paralympians on the most important stage of all.
It’s going to formally begin with the opening ceremony at 12:00 BST on Tuesday and competitors begins on Wednesday.
How did we get right here?
After the Rio Paralympics, which wanted main late finances cuts in an effort to go forward, hopes have been excessive that the Tokyo Video games would carry the Paralympic motion again to a place of power after the highs of London 2012.
Tokyo seemed like the right accomplice, with a powerful bond between the Olympic and Paralympic staging and unprecedented demand for tickets.
The unique ‘one yr to go’ festivities in 2019 featured profitable mass participation occasions and confirmed a starvation among the many Japanese public to get behind the Video games.
However the coronavirus pandemic ripped up all the plans, with a yr’s delay after which a bunch of protocols affecting all involved, as with the Olympics.
Athletes the world over confronted challenges to their coaching and competitors programmes, with some required to defend for medical causes.
Staging the Video games
The Paralympic mascot Someity visits a college in Japan in 2019
A state of emergency stays in place in Tokyo, with Covid-19 case numbers persevering with to rise within the metropolis and surrounds.
Throughout the Paralympic bubble, as with the Olympics, strict protocols are in place together with each day testing for athletes, necessary mask-wearing and social distancing.
As well as, gear akin to wheelchairs should be recurrently sanitised.
“I am assured it will likely be a secure Video games – however a secure Video games doesn’t suggest zero circumstances,” Worldwide Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons instructed BBC Sport.
“We can have circumstances. However how we then management and react to the constructive circumstances, and never allow them to unfold the virus, will outline whether or not we’re profitable or not.
“I perceive the frustration and the anger among the many Japanese in regards to the pandemic, however there isn’t a correlation between it and the presence of the Olympics right here and I am positive it’s going to be the identical with the Paralympics.
“There are different causes for the rise within the variety of circumstances.”
Coronavirus journey restrictions have had an influence on the Video games, with athletes from Pacific Island nations Samoa, Kiribati, Tonga and Vanuatu unable to journey.
The information of their absence got here days after Afghanistan’s two Paralympic athletes have been pressured to withdraw from the Video games due to the state of affairs within the nation for the reason that collapse of the federal government and the return of the Taliban. Nonetheless, as a mark of solidarity, the nation’s flag will likely be carried on the opening ceremony by a consultant of the Workplace of the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees.
As well as, a six-strong Refugee crew will participate within the Video games, together with Afghan swimmer Abbas Karimi and the crew’s first feminine member, membership thrower Alia Issa.
Members of the New Zealand wheelchair rugby crew arrive on court docket for a follow match
What’s new?
For the Tokyo programme, gone are Para-sailing and soccer seven-a-side and in come Para-badminton and Para-taekwondo, which can have 14 and 6 medal occasions respectively.
4 sports activities – Para-canoe, Para-shooting, Para-table tennis and wheelchair fencing – have extra medal occasions than Rio.
Nonetheless, the 2 greatest sports activities when it comes to athlete numbers and medals – Para-athletics and Para-swimming – have fewer occasions than 5 years in the past.
Each sports activities have launched new combined relay occasions – the common relay in athletics includes a visually impaired runner on the primary leg, an amputee runner on the second, an athlete with cerebral palsy or co-ordination impairment on the third leg and a wheelchair racer on the final leg.
Swimming has added a 4x100m relay for S14 (studying incapacity) opponents.
What in regards to the Nice Britain crew?
The GB crew for Tokyo options 227 opponents – a determine that features pilots and guides for visually impaired opponents plus competitors companions – and they’re going to participate in 19 of the 22 sports activities.
ParalympicsGB promised that the crew can be one of the best ready for a Video games they usually have labored laborious to guarantee that no stone has been left unturned, amid the various difficulties.
With 100 feminine athletes chosen, the GB crew would be the closest to gender parity it has ever been at a Summer season Paralympics – 44% of the crew are girls, in contrast with 40% on the Rio Video games.
The crew is full of expertise with 144 returning Paralympians and 43 Paralympic champions.
In Rio, GB athletes received 147 medals, together with 64 golds, throughout 15 sports activities – their greatest haul since 1988 – and have been second to China within the total medal desk.
As with their Olympic counterparts, the Paralympic crew have been given a medal vary reasonably than a goal by UK Sport, with theirs 100-140.
Who’re the GB athletes to observe?
Sarah Storey has an opportunity to develop into Britain’s most profitable Paralympian at her eighth Paralympics. She involves Tokyo with 14 golds throughout her profession in swimming and biking, and three extra golds will see her overtake Mike Kenny’s document of 16, which has stood since 1988.
Storey, 43, may additionally develop into Nice Britain’s first gold medallist in Tokyo when she defends her C5 particular person pursuit crown on Wednesday earlier than she goes in two highway races later within the programme.
Storey will likely be defending the three titles she received in Rio
She is a part of a powerful GB biking squad with a bunch of medal probabilities each on the monitor and the highway, via seven-time Paralympian Jody Cundy, Jaco van Gass, who was injured serving with the Parachute Regiment in Afghanistan and has competed on the Invictus Video games, and tandem pairs Lora Fachie and Corrine Corridor and Neil Fachie and Matt Rotherham.
Having created historical past in Rio by changing into the primary GB athlete to win gold medals in two sports activities on the identical Video games since 1988, Kadeena Cox will bid to retain her titles in biking and athletics.
She is joined within the twin sports activities membership by triathlete George Peasgood, who will even compete within the highway biking occasions.
Lee Pearson will intention so as to add to his 11 golds within the equestrian enviornment, together with fellow multi-medallists Natasha Baker and Sophie Wells.
On the athletics monitor, Hannah Cockroft, Aled Davies, Libby Clegg, Richard Whitehead and Hollie Arnold will all be aiming to retain their Paralympic titles.
Debutants together with 400m runner Columba Blango and javelin thrower Dan Pembroke will hope to make their mark, whereas London 2012 four-gold hero David Weir is again after a disappointing Rio Video games.
Within the pool, Ellie Simmonds is again for her fourth Video games however faces an enormous problem from team-mate Maisie Summers-Newton, and Bethany Firth will likely be eager to beat a shoulder damage and retain the three titles she received in Rio.
What in regards to the international stars?
From German ‘Blade jumper’ Markus Rehm to American wheelchair racer Tatyana McFadden, Brazilian swimmer Daniel Dias to wheelchair tennis dwelling favourites Shingo Kunieda and Yui Kamiji, there will likely be some sturdy opponents on present.
Polish desk tennis participant Natalia Partyka will likely be aiming for her fifth title in a row, weeks after competing on the Olympic Video games for the fourth time.
Italian wheelchair fencer Bebe Vio, who contracted meningitis aged 11 and had each of her forearms amputated in addition to each her legs on the knee, will hope to shine in her sport, whereas it will likely be a memorable debut for 14-year-old Ugandan swimmer Husnah Kukundakwe.
And on the different finish of the age spectrum, a trio of equestrian riders, Germany’s Heidemarie Dresing (66) Eire’s Rosemary Gaffney (63) and Norway’s Jens Lasse Dokken (60), will likely be hoping to indicate that age is not any barrier to Paralympic success.
