Paris 2024: Uzbekistan’s para-athletes ready to fight for Paralympic awards

Paris is preparing to host the 17th Summer Paralympic Games.

The Games will be held from August 28 to September 8. Uzbekistan has received 113 licenses, allowing 65 athletes to compete and defend the country’s honor. This is the largest number of participants from Uzbekistan in the history of the Paralympic Games. Uzbekistan’s athletes will compete in the following disciplines: Paralympic athletics, judo, swimming, powerlifting, canoeing, rowing, taekwondo, shooting, and cycling.

Let us recall that at the 2016 Paralympic Games held in Rio de Janeiro, Uzbekistan’s Paralympians won 32 licenses, and in Tokyo, 70.

A solemn ceremony of seeing off the national team to the Paralympics was held at the Olympic Glory Museum.

The event was attended by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov, First Deputy Director of the National Agency for Social Protection under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shakhnoza Mirziyoyeva, winners of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Diyora Keldiyorova, Ulugbek Rashitov, world champion in Paralympic athletics, silver medalist of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Asila Mirzayorova, who spoke about the conditions created for people with disabilities in Uzbekistan and expressed confidence that our talented athletes will show high results at these Paralympic Games and further glorify the name of the country on the world stage.

At the ceremony, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov solemnly presented the country’s flag to the world and continental champion in Paralympic athletics Khusniddin Norbekov, and the winner of the Asian Paralympic Games, medalist of the Paralympic Games Mokhigul Khamdamova, who were appointed flagbearers of the Uzbekistan delegation at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

At the event, the Deputy Chairman of the Writers’ Union of Uzbekistan, poet Botir Ergashev read a poem dedicated to our para-athletes.

It should be noted that 29 out of 65 Uzbekistan Paralympians who won 113 licenses for the Summer Paralympic Games in Paris, that is, 45 percent, are women. This results from reforms in Uzbekistan to support women’s sports, further strengthening their status in society.

The official opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will take place on August 28.

UzA