The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are over and now the Paralympics follow, which will take place from August 24 to September 5.
The Paralympics are expected to bring together 4,400 athletes with physical, intellectual, visual disabilities or cerebral palsy from at least 160 countries.
During 12 days of competitions, 539 medal events (272 men, 227 women and 40 mixed) of the 22 sports that are part of the competition program will be played, according to the Spanish Paralympic Committee.
These games, which will have two new sports, badminton and taekwondo, will have 21 venues distributed mainly in two areas of the city: the Heritage, which contains some facilities used in 1964, and the Bay, with an urban design more avant-garde.
Outside of these two areas, shooting (at the Asaka Shooting Range), road cycling (at the Fuji International Circuit) and track cycling (at the Izu Velodrome) will be contested.
The opening and closing ceremonies, which will take place on August 24 and September 5, will be at the Olympic Stadium assigned to athletics and located in Heritage.
The other non-sports facilities will be the Paralympic Family hotel and the International Press and Broadcasting Center, both in the Bay, and the Paralympic Village, located at the intersection of the two areas.
The Paralympic mascot is Someity, a pink cartoon inspired by the Japanese cherry blossom, one of the elements most ingrained in the country’s traditional culture.
Someity has superpowers and its name mixes the Japanese term ‘Someiyoshino’ (a variety of flower) with the English expression ‘so mighty’ (so powerful).
40.5 percent of Paralympic athletes will be women, as part of the Tokyo 2020 commitment to achieve the highest gender parity in the history of the Paralympic Games, according to the official site of the Games.
In addition, for the first time in this competition, six athletes will make up the first Paralympic Refugee Team of the International Paralympic Committee.
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