The Spanish Paralympic Committee has made official this Wednesday the official list of the team that will compete in Tokyo from August 24 to September 5, which will be made up of 135 athletes, 122 of them with disabilities plus 13 support (athletics and triathlon guides, cycling pilots or soccer goalkeepers). This figure represents an increase of eight more people compared to Rio de Janeiro 2016, an appointment in which 31 medals were achieved. Spain will be represented in 15 of the 22 disciplines in the Japanese capital, all except badminton, boccia, fencing, horse riding, goalball, rugby and volleyball.
The athletes are joined by 86 more members in the expedition, including coaches, doctors, physiotherapists, mechanics and support and office personnel. Almost 50% of athletes will debut in Tokyo at a Games. The sports with the highest number of representatives are swimming and wheelchair basketball, with 24. In the pool will be Chano Rodríguez, Miguel Luque, Teresa Perales, Xavi Torres, José Antonio Marí, Sarai Gascón, David Levecq, Michelle Alonso, Toni Ponce, Núria Marquès, Óscar Salguero, María Delgado, Ariadna Edo, Marta Fernández, Alejandro Rojas, David Sánchez, Nahia Zudaire, Carlos Martínez, Luis Huerta, Sergio Martos, Isabel Yinghua Hernández, Jacobo Garrido, Íñigo Llopis and Miguel Ángel Martínez Tajuelo .
The men’s basketball team, silver in Rio de Janeiro 2016, will attend with Asier García, Pablo Zarzuela, Alejandro Zarzuela, Fran Lara, Dani Stix, Agustín Alejos, Amadou Diallo, Jordi Ruiz, David Mouriz, Óscar Onrubia, Ignacio ‘Pincho’ Ortega and Manu Lorenzo. While the women’s team, which returns to some Games 29 years later, will do so with Sonia Ruiz, Sara Revuelta, Lourdes Ortega, Agurtzane Egiluz, Beatriz Zudaire, Vicky Pérez, Vicky Alonso, Isa López, Cruz Ruiz, Michell Navarro, Almudena Montiel and Judith Núñez.
Athletics will also provide a large group of 20 athletes: Adi Iglesias, Alberto Suárez, Gustavo Nieves, Álvaro del Amo, Sara Andrés, Héctor Cabrera, Iván Cano, Gerard Download, Nagore Folgado, Alba García, Kim López, Sara Martínez, Miriam Martínez, Izaskun Osés, Yassine Ouhdadi, Mari Carmen Paredes, Xavi Porras, Susana Rodríguez, Deliber Rodríguez and Desirée Vila, as well as guides Celso Comesaña, Lorenzo Sánchez, Jonatan Orozco, Joan Raga and Guillermo Rojo.
Spanish cycling will try to show its high level both at the velodrome and on the road with Alfonso Cabello, Ricardo Ten, Sergio Garrote, Eduardo Santas, Luis Miguel García-Marquina, Israel Rider, Joan Reinoso, Pablo Jaramillo and the tandems Christian Venge- Noel Martín and Adolfo Bellido-Eloy Teruel. The Spanish soccer team for the blind, current European champions, will try to fight for the medals as they did in Athens 2004 and London 2012 with a bronze. For this, Jesús Bargueiras has pulled the usual block of recent years: Pedro Gutiérrez, Sergio Rodríguez, Iván López, Javi Muñoz, Vicente Aguilar, Adolfo Acosta, Sergio Alamar, Antonio Martín ‘Niño’, Miki Sánchez and Youssef el Haddaoui.
In weightlifting, Loida Zabala will be accompanied this time by Montse Alcoba, while in judo Spain will feature Sergio Ibáñez, Álvaro Gavilán and triple Paralympic medalist Marta Arce. Canoeing, which debuted in Rio 2016, has seen its participation increased with five paddlers: Adrián Castaño, Inés Felipe, Adrián Mosquera, Higinio Rivero and Juan Valle. And Spanish rowing returns to a Games with six participants: Javier Reja and the four with a helmsman formed by Pepi Benítez, Verónica Rodríguez, Enrique Floriano, Jorge Pineda and Estíbalis Armendáriz.
In tennis, Martín de la Puente, Dani Caverzaschi, Quico Tur and Kike Siscar will compete, and in table tennis there will be eight Spaniards: Álvaro Valera, José Manuel Ruiz, Juan Bautista Pérez, Eduardo Cuesta, Jordi Morales, Iker Sastre, Francisco Javier López and Miguel Angel Toledo. Taekwondo, shooting and archery only contribute one athlete: Álex Vidal, Juan Saavedra and Carmen Rubio, respectively. And the Spanish ‘ParaTriArmada’ travels to Tokyo with many options to get medals. There will be Eva Moral, Rakel Mateo, Álex Sánchez Palomero, Jairo Ruiz, Jota García, Héctor Catalá, Susana Rodríguez and the guides Pedro Andújar, Gustavo Rodríguez and Sara Loehr.
