For those who are having withdrawal after the end of the 2024 Paris Olympics, fear not: The games aren’t over yet. The 2024 Paris Paralympics are coming soon, starting with an Opening Ceremony on Wednesday, August 28.
The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) released the full, 225-member team roster on Monday. Team USA will have 110 male and 110 female para-athletes — plus five guides — competing on behalf of the United States in Paris.
Although 78 athletes will be making their Paralympic debuts, the members of Team USA also include 141 returning Paralympians. 52 of these returning veterans have won previous Paralympic gold medals.
Three Americans — multi-sport athlete Oksana Masters, marathoner Tatyana McFadden and table tennis player Tahl Leibovitz — will be competing in their seventh Paralympic games. Masters has competed in every summer and winter games since 2012; she’s competed in four different sports, picking up nine Paralympic medals in para Nordic skiing and five in para biathlon in the winter games. On the summer side, she has a pararowing bronze from 2012 and two para-cycling golds from Tokyo.
Swimmer Jessica Long, who has earned 29 Paralympic medals for the United States, will be attending her sixth games. The 32-year-old has competed in every Paralympics since Athens in 2004, where she picked up three gold medals. Long is second in total Paralympic medals for the U.S., behind Trischa Zorn.
Hunter Woodhall, wife of Olympic long jump gold medalist Tara Davis-Woohall, is another notable returning name. He will be at his third Paralympic games, after winning a silver in the 200m and a bronze in the 400m in Rio, and another bronze in the 400m in Tokyo. Davis-Woodhall will also be in Paris as part of a group of Team USA influencers, representing the Youtube channel that she and Woodhall host together.
After the Opening Ceremony, Paralympic games will take place from August 29 to September 8. In total, the games will include 22 sports and 549 medal events.
Similar to the Olympics, events will take place in famous Parisian venues: The Grand Palais will be used for wheelchair fencing and taekwondo, with the Champ de Mars used for judo and wheelchair rugby, the Château de Versailles hosting equestrian events and wheelchair tennis taking place at Roland-Garros. The stadium next to the Eiffel Tower, used for beach volleyball during the Olympics, will host blind soccer.
The Opening Ceremony will take place next Wednesday along with Champs-Élysées and in the Place de la Concorde, a public square near the Louvre. Like the Olympic Opening Ceremony, the Paralympic opening event will make history as the first to take place outside of a stadium.
Source Agencies
