Few athletes can declare the flexibility of Oksana Masters—she has 18 complete medals between the Winter and Summer season Video games, in para-Nordic snowboarding, para-cycling, and para-rowing.
Masters shall be in Paris to defend her two gold medals from Tokyo, in each the street time trial H4-5 and street race H5 occasions, for hand cyclists who’ve restricted motion of their decrease physique or lacking limbs. Para-cycling will happen on August 29 via September 7.
9. A rising star in archery will make her Paralympic debut—alongside considered one of her mentors.
Sheetal Devi of India can be simply 17 and has solely been competing in archery since 2021. However in that point, she’s gained silver on the World Archery Para Championships and gold within the particular person compound and blended group occasions on the Asian Para Video games. At that competitors, she shot six excellent 10s in a row; she has the highest world rating for para-compound archers heading into Paris.
Devi was born with phocomelia, a situation that results in underdeveloped limbs. Coaches at a youth occasion sponsored by the Indian Military acknowledged her athletic expertise and at first tried to assist her take part with prosthetics. That didn’t work, however quickly, they discovered about armless American archer Matt Stutzman, who makes use of his legs to shoot and gained silver on the London Paralympics in 2012. They helped Devi use an analogous method, and shortly she was firing her means into the very best ranges of competitors.
Stutzman, who has helped coach Devi personally, can even be competing in Paris. He’s 41, has had hip accidents, and has mentioned this could be his closing Paralympic look, although he hasn’t dominated out making an attempt to qualify for Los Angeles in 2028.
10. Two Survivor contestants will return to the display.
You would possibly acknowledge Ryan Medrano and Noelle Lambert from Survivor 43 within the fall of 2022. Whereas each have been voted out—Medrano in ninth and Lambert in eighth—they each certified for the Paralympic observe & subject group this summer time.
Lambert, a former collegiate lacrosse participant who misplaced her leg in a moped accident in 2016, competed in Tokyo within the 100 meters within the T63 classification, the place she positioned sixth. She determined to attempt lengthy leaping earlier this yr and shortly excelled, setting a brand new Americas file of 4.75 meters on the US Paralympics Observe & Subject Nationwide Championships in March, then shattering that mark once more with a 5.06-meter soar at Trials in July to earn her spot in Paris.
Medrano, who has gentle cerebral palsy, will compete at his first Video games within the males’s 100-meter T38, a classification for athletes with impairments in motion coordination.
11. Hunter Woodhall will get his second to go for gold.
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