Let’s start the game again!
This week, the world championships return to Paris with the opening of the 2024 Paralympic Games, bringing together thousands of top athletes from around the world to compete for medals in 549 sports over 11 days.
It lists all the sports that are being played.
What sports are held at the Paralympics?
The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will feature 22 sports, including both individual and team events.
Here’s a brief description of each sport from Olympics.com:
Para Archery
Men and women with physical disabilities can compete either standing or in a wheelchair. The competition begins with a ranking round in which archers shoot 72 arrows over a distance of either 50 or 70 meters.
Para Athletics
Athletes may compete in track events, jumping events and the marathon using wheelchairs (tricycles), prosthetic limbs or throwing chairs.
Para-badminton
Athletes compete in singles and pairs and are divided into six classes – four standing classes and two wheelchair classes – based on the level of their disability.
Blind Football
An adapted version of soccer played with a ball that makes noise for visually impaired athletes.
Three-time Paralympic medalist Trevon Jennifer gives his perspective on wheelchair basketball at the Paris Paralympic Games in 2024. Off the court, Jennifer is the face of Citi’s “What Happened?” advertising campaign.
Boccia
The sport is played by wheelchair athletes with severe disabilities that affect their motor skills, and the objective is to throw or roll the ball as close as possible to a small white ball called a “jack.”
Paracanoe
Para athletes compete in the 200m in a single-seater boat with a wide bottom for added stability.
Paracycling
Depending on the level of their disability, athletes use a variety of bicycles including standard bicycles, handcycles, tricycles and tandem bicycles.
Para-Equestrian
Para Dressage events include the Individual Championship competition, the Team competition in which riders perform set routines set to music, and the Individual Freestyle competition in which each rider chooses their own routine and music.
Goalball
Goalball is a team sport designed for visually impaired and blind people in which the attacking team competes to score points by rolling a ball equipped with a built-in bell at high speed along the floor towards a goal defended by the opponents on the other side.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Paralympic sport of Goalball.
Para Judo
A visually impaired judoka must hold on to his opponent’s judogi throughout the match while trying to throw him to the ground, immobilize him with pins or force him to submit with submission or chokeholds.
Para Powerlifting
There are 10 weight classes in the bench press competition for both men and women.
Paraboat
Rowers compete in four 2,000-metre races based on gender and disability categories. The boats are equipped with fixed seats for rowers who lack leg function.
Parasports Shooting
Shooters compete in rifle and pistol events from distances of 10m, 25m and 50m while kneeling, standing, sitting in a wheelchair or shooting chair or using an armrest table.
Sitting Volleyball
Played on a smaller volleyball court with a low net, two teams of six players use their arm strength to slide around the court while remaining in a seated position.
Para swimming
Athletes compete in a variety of distances including breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly, freestyle and medley.
Para Table Tennis
The sport was originally only open to wheelchair athletes, but now includes athletes with a range of disabilities. Matches are decided in best-of-five sets in singles and doubles.
Para Taekwondo
Athletes with impairments in one or both upper limbs compete in a single-round competition, scoring points by striking their opponent’s torso.
Paratriathlon
Athletes will swim 750m, cycle 20km and run 5km. Athletes in the seated class will use hand cycles and be assisted by handlers in the transition area of the race. Athletes who are visually impaired will be accompanied by a guide and will use tandem bikes.
Wheelchair basketball
It is played on a court and hoop the same size as Olympic basketball, and players must pass or bounce the ball every two pushes of their wheelchair wheels to avoid a traveling penalty.
Wheelchair Fencing
Athletes compete in foil, épée and sabre in wheelchairs mounted on special frames that are fixed to the floor, allowing them to be close to their opponents at all times.
Wheelchair Rugby
A mixed team sport involving male and female players with some form of quadriplegia, Murderball is a highly physically demanding sport played in specially designed manual wheelchairs. The aim of the game is to carry the ball over the opponent’s try line.
Sarah Adam, who has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, is trying to become the first woman to play for the U.S. Paralympic team in wheelchair rugby, a sport so violent it has been nicknamed “murderball.”
Wheelchair Tennis
Athletes with lower limb impairments, and those with both upper and lower limb impairments, compete in singles and doubles, with the only rule difference being that the ball must bounce twice before being returned.
What sports are held at the Winter Paralympics?
Paralympic winter sports include para-alpine skiing, para-Nordic skiing, para-sled hockey, para-snowboarding and wheelchair curling.
When do the Paralympics start?
The Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paralympic Games will take place on Wednesday 28 August, with competitions officially starting on Thursday 29 August.
How to watch the 2024 Paralympics
All matches at the Paris 2024 Paralympics will be streamed live on Peacock.
When three-time Paralympic medalist Trevon Jennifer isn’t playing for the U.S. wheelchair basketball team, he’s protecting his country as a member of the Secret Service.