ParalympicsGB team for Paris 2024 confirmed with highest proportion of female athletes ever

ParalympicsGB has confirmed the 215 athletes who will participate at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games – with 46 per cent female, the highest ever proportion and even greater gender equality than Tokyo 2020.

With an estimated 45 per cent of the events at the Paralympic Games open to female athletes Paris 2024 promises to be the most gender balanced in history.

Just as in Tokyo three years ago, ParalympicsGB will be represented in 19 of the 22 Paralympic sports that make up the Games schedule, while Para cycling, canoe and rowing will all have their largest squads ever in the French capital.

With 18 female and nine male athletes, the swimming squad contains the highest proportion of female athletes ever – including 13-year-old Iona Winnifrith, the youngest member in the ParalympicsGB team and one of 14 teenagers overall.

The eldest athlete on the team for Paris is 54-year-old Para canoe multiple medallist Jeanette Chippington, who will compete at her eighth Games since making her debut in Para swimming at Seoul 1988.

Penny Briscoe, Chef de Mission for ParalympicsGB at Paris 2024 said: “I am absolutely delighted to confirm that 215 athletes will compete for ParalympicsGB in Paris this summer. In the three years since the delayed Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games I have been privileged to witness outstanding performances by so many of our athletes at world and European level as they worked so hard to secure qualification for Paris 2024.

“Now that time has come, and we are days away from the start of what I believe will be a spectacular celebration of Para sport at the most competitive Paralympic Games ever, which will be enjoyed by fans both in France and around the world.

“Paris 2024 promises to be a landmark Paralympic Games with our highest representation of female athletes ever and a host of talented athletes seeking to achieve personal best performances in one of the world’s great cities.”

Alongside the 81 Games debutants in the ParalympicsGB team for Paris 2024, there are 49 Paralympic champions hoping to add to their medal collection in Paris over the 11 days of competition, which kicks off on 28 August with the Opening Ceremony at Place de la Concorde in the heart of the French capital.

Leading the way in Games appearances – not to mention Paralympic gold medals - is ParalympicsGB’s most decorated athlete, Dame Sarah Storey, who will compete at her ninth consecutive Games.

Storey - one of nine reigning Paralympic champions in Great Britain’s cycling squad for Paris – won three events at Tokyo 2020 to take her gold medal tally to a phenomenal 17.

Briscoe added: “More than a third of the athletes in the ParalympicsGB team will make their Games debuts in Paris, and I am proud of the support these athletes – as well as our experienced Paralympians - will receive from the network of staff both in the UK and in France who have been working tirelessly to ensure ParalympicsGB is best prepared both on and off the field of play.

“With Paris just a short journey across the Channel I know many fans, friends and family will travel to France to support the team and enjoy the action in the many iconic venues that the city has to offer. I can’t wait to see the Games get underway.”

ParalympicsGB made history at Tokyo 2020, winning medals across 18 sports - the most of any nation ever - to finish second on the medal table behind China with 124 medals overall, including 41 gold, 38 silver and 45 bronze.

Para badminton was a new addition to the schedule at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, which saw Dan Bethell and Krysten Coombs return home as Paralympic medallists at their debut Games. This time around events for female athletes have been added to the competition, with Liverpool’s 10-time world champion Rachel Choong set to make her first appearance in a ParalympicsGB vest.

While the majority of action takes place in and around the French capital, from Para equestrian at the Chateau de Versailles in the east, to Para canoe and Para rowing at Vaires-sur-Marne in the west, Shooting Para sport takes place nearly 300 km to the south in Chateauroux, where Matt Skelhon, Ryan Cockbill, Tim Jeffery and Issy Bailey take aim for ParalympicsGB.

Fresh off the back of winning Wimbledon last month, Alfie Hewett will be hoping to claim the one major title that eludes him – Paralympic gold. The nine-time Grand Slam singles champion won wheelchair tennis silver at Rio 2016, as well as doubles silver alongside partner Gordon Reid at both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

Watch out too for Rio 2016 Para table tennis gold medallist Will Bayley, the current world number one who has not lost a men’s class 7 match since Tokyo 2020, and Para triathlon’s reigning world champion Dave Ellis, out for redemption after an equipment failure at Tokyo 2020.

The total figure of 215 includes guides, pilots and competition partners.