10 Curiosities of the Tokyo Paralympic Games

Ten curiosities of the Paralympic Games in Tokyo (Japan), which are held from August 24 to September 5.

1. The Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games mascot is called Someity, which comes from ‘someiyoshino’, a popular variety of cherry blossom, and is mixed with the English expression ‘so mighty’ (very powerful). According to its creators, it has many powers and can communicate with its elements, such as stones and the wind.

2. Boccia, for the physically and intellectually disabled, and goalball, for the visually impaired, are the only two sports on the Tokyo Paralympic program that are not on the Olympic program. In Tokyo the sports that make their debut are taekwondo and badminton.

3. The Paralympic symbol (three Shakes) consists of three elements in red, blue and green. The three Agitos (from the Latin “I move”) surround a central point and symbolize the movement of bringing together athletes with disabilities from all corners of the world to compete.

4. The Paralympic Games and the Olympic Games were not held together in the same city until Seoul (1988). Since then they go together in the same headquarters. Tokyo is, so far, the only city that has hosted the Paralympic Games twice after the 1964 edition.

5. Horse riding is the only artistic sport on the Paralympic Games program. It includes mixed dressage events (team, individual and freestyle) and athletes are grouped into five classes according to the nature and degree of their physical or visual impairment.

6. The Paralympic movement has made the leap into the audiovisual world with the Tokyo Games. The first official video game has been created, called ‘The Dream of Pegasus’, and a film, ‘Rising Phoenix’, released on the international Netflix platform, has received four nominations for the Sports Emmy.

7. Several Paralympic athletes participating in Tokyo are also healthcare workers and have been at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The Dutch rowing champion and doctor Annika van der Meer, the British table tennis player and doctor Kim Daybell, the Venezuelan swimmer and doctor Génesis Leal and the Spanish triathlete and doctor Susana Rodríguez are some of the people who have been training and working overtime for Save lives. Susana Rodríguez.

8. To help visually impaired people recognize the various Tokyo 2020 Paralympic medals by touch, for the first time in history a series of circular indentations have been included on the side of the medals. One indentation represents gold, two distinguish silver, and three identify bronze. Additionally, the braille letters also spell out ‘Tokyo 2020’ on the face of the medals.

9. A record number of female athletes will compete at the Tokyo Paralympic Games. 40.5% of all athletes will be women, according to the IPC qualification criteria. This is equivalent to 1,782 athletes, an increase compared to the 1,671 women who competed in Rio 2016 (38.6%).

10. The Rio 2016 Paralympic Games broke the accumulated television audience record with 4.1 billion viewers. The CPI expects this figure to be exceeded to 4,250. In addition, this edition will be the most global in the world due to the decision of the IPC to broadcast the highlights of the event for free in 49 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that cannot pay for broadcasting rights.

With information from EFE

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