In a Paris that in these hours is saying goodbye to the foreign delegations participating in the Olympics, the interventions to prepare the structures for the Paralympics which will begin on Wednesday 28 August and will last until Sunday 8 September. Two weeks of intense work to make stadiums and arenas as accessible as possible. The Parisian metro cannot be made accessible in such a short time, where only a few stations have escalators and elevators. In the stadiums, it will be necessary to dismantle the logistics of the Olympics and create more ramps and equipment to facilitate the movement of athletes and Paralympic athletes.
As happened for the XXXIII Olympic Games, also for the XVII Paralympics the Italian Team will be present with a record-breaking delegation. There are 141 Italian athletes (71 male and 70 female athletes) who will compete in 17 disciplines, athletics, badminton, canoeing, rowing, cycling, horse riding, judo, swimming, fencing, sitting volleyball, weightlifting, taekwondo, wheelchair tennis, table tennis, shooting, archery, triathlon. The flag bearers are Ambra Sabatini (athletics) and Luca Mazzone (cycling).
There are 52 athletes making their debut, about 37% of the Italian team. The youngest Italian is Giuliana Chiara Filippi (athletics), born in 2005. The goal is to equal, if not improve, the 69 medals won three years ago at the Tokyo Paralympics, when Italy was ninth in the medal table.
ALL THE BLUES AT THE PARALYMPICS
Athletics: Riccardo Bagaini, Fabio Bottazzini, Martina Caironi, Marco Cicchetti, Monica Contrafatto, Arjola Dedaj, Ndiaga Dieng, Giuliana Chiara Filippi, Alessandro Galbiati (guide), Rigivan Ganeshamoorthy, Assunta Legnante, Alessandro Ossola, Maxcel Amo Manu, Valentina Petrillo, Ambra Sabatini, Oney Tapia. Badminton: Rosa Efomo De Marco. Canoeing: Veronica Silvia Biglia, Marius Bogdan Ciustea, Eleonora De Paolis, Amanda Embriaco, Esteban Gabriel Farias, Kwadzo Klokpah, Mirko Nicoli, Christian Volpi. Rowing: Enrico D’Aniello (coxswain), Carolina Foresti, Marco Frank, Greta Elizabeth Muti, Giacomo Perini, Tommaso Schettino. Cycling: Katia Aere, Federico Andreoli, Lorenzo Bernard, Fabrizio Cornegliani, Claudia Cretti, Giorgio Farroni, Luca Mazzone, Eleonora Mele, Federico Mestroni, Martino Pini, Davide Plebani (pilot), Francesca Porcellato, Giulia Ruffato, Mirko Testa, Paolo Toto’ (pilot), Ana Maria Vitelaru. Horseback riding: Sara Morganti, Francesca Salvadè, Carola Semperboni, Federica Sileoni. Judo: Dongdong Camanni, Simone Cannizzaro, Carolina Costa, Valerio Romano Teodori, Matilde Lauria. Swimming: Alberto Amodeo, Simone Barlaam, Luigi Beggiato, Francesco Bettella, Alessia Berra, Vittoria Bianco, Federico Bicelli, Francesco Bocciardo, Monica Boggioni, Vincenzo Boni, Manuel Bortuzzo, Simone Ciulli, Federico Cristiani, Antonio Fantin, Giulia Ghiretti, Carlotta Gilli, Emmanuele Marigliano, Domiziana Mecenate, Riccardo Menciotti, Efrem Morelli, Federico Morlacchi, Xenia Francesca Palazzo, Angela Procida, Martina Rabbolini, Stefano Raimondi, Alessia Scortechini, Arianna Talamona, Giulia Terzi. Fencing: Matteo Betti, Matteo Dei Rossi, Edoardo Giordan, Emanuele Lambertini, Michele Massa, Andreea Mogos, Gianmarco Paolucci, Rossana Pasquino, Loredana Trigilia, Beatrice Vio Grandis. Sitting volleyball: Giulia Aringhieri, Flavia Barigelli, Raffaela Battaglia, Giulia Bellandi, Silvia Biasi, Francesca Bosio, Eva Ceccatelli, Sara Cirelli, Sara Desini, Alessandra Moggio, Roberta Pedrelli, Elisa Spediacci. Weightlifting: Andrea Maria Quarto, Emanuela Romano, Donato Telesca. Taekwondo: Antonino Bossolo. Wheelchair tennis: Luca Arca. Table tennis: Andrea Borgato, Michela Brunelli, Federico Crosara, Federico Falco, Matteo Parenzan, Carlotta Ragazzini, Giada Rossi. Shooting: Livia Cecagallina, Davide Franceschetti, Gianluca Iacus, Roberto Lazzaro, Andrea Liverani, Pamela Novaglio. Archery: Matteo Bonacina, Daila Dameno, Veronica Floreno, Elisabetta Mijno, Asia Pellizzari, Giulia Pesci, Eleonora Sarti, Paolo Tonon, Stefano Travisani. Triathlon: Giovanni Achenza, Anna Barbaro, Charlotte Bonin (guide), Veronica Yoko Plebani, Giuseppe Romele, Francesca Tarantello, Silvia Visaggi (guide), Gianluca Valori.
The first edition of the Summer Paralympic Games took place in Rome in 1960 from 18 to 25 September, in which 400 athletes from 23 nations took part. After the Tokyo ’64 edition, and up to and including 1984, the Paralympics were always held every four years but not in the same venue as the Olympic Games.
Since Seoul 1988, the Paralympic Games have been held in the same venue as the Olympics and since that edition the opening ceremony has been held with the official flag bearers. The first Italian flag bearer was swimmer Stefano Giovannetti, followed, four years later in Barcelona, by Luca Pancalli, current president of the Italian Paralympic Committee (CIP).
THE BLUE FLAG BEARERS
– Seoul 1988: Stefano Giovannetti (swimming). -Barcelona 1992: Luca Pancalli (swimming). -Atlanta 1996: Paola Fantato (archery). -Sydney 2000: Maurizio Nalin (athletics). -Athens 2004: Aldo Manganaro (athletics) and Paolo D’Agostini (athletics). -Beijing 2008: Cecilia Camellini (swimming) and Francesca Porcellato (athletics). -London 2012: Oscar De Pellegrin (archery). -Rio de Janeiro 2016: Martina Caironi (athletics). -Tokyo 2020: Beatrice Vio (Fencing) and Federico Morlacchi (swimming). -Paris 2024: Ambra Sabatini (athletics) and Luca Mazzone (cycling).