Baghdad – WAA
Today, Wednesday, the activities of the 17th session of the Paralympic Games will open in the French capital, Paris, and its competitions will be held with the participation of our Iraqi national teams for people with special needs, and will continue until the eighth of next September.
More than 4,400 athletes representing 182 countries are participating in this sporting event, competing in 22 sports held in 18 different facilities.
Our athletes aspire to win many colorful medals, especially since their previous participation history is full of achievements. The Iraqi delegation is participating in 10 events, namely table tennis, athletics, swimming, wheelchair tennis, archery, taekwondo, weightlifting, shooting, fencing, and judo, which reflects the diversity of Iraqi talents and their determination to achieve success in this important international sports tournament.
The players Faris Saadoon and Fatima Fadhel will carry the Iraqi flag during the parade of participating countries. The Iraqi delegation is the fifth largest Arab delegation participating in the Paris Paralympics in terms of the number of athletes after the delegations of Egypt (54 athletes), then Morocco (38 athletes), Tunisia (30 athletes), Algeria (26 athletes), and then Iraq (20 athletes). The UAE is represented by (13 athletes), Saudi Arabia (9 athletes), and Jordan (8 athletes), and the rest of the countries are participating with 3 athletes or less.
The Paralympic flame will be lit after setting off last Saturday from the village of Stoke Mandeville in England, in what is known as the “Pioneers Relay”, where the flame passed from the United Kingdom to France via the Channel Tunnel, and from there to the town of Calais (northern France), to finally arrive in the French capital, Paris.
The current edition is the first Summer Paralympic Games to be held in France, while France previously hosted the Winter Paralympic Games in 1992.