NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has died at a Kenyan hospital where she was being treated after 80% of her body was burned in an attack by her partner. She was 33.

Kenya’s sports minister said authorities must do more to combat gender-based violence.

A spokesperson at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret city, Owen Menach, confirmed Cheptegei’s death on Thursday. Menach said the long-distance runner died early in the morning after her organs failed. She had been fully sedated on admission at the hospital.

Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.

Her father, Joseph Cheptegei, told journalists at the hospital that he had lost a daughter who was “very supportive” and said he hoped to get justice.

“As it is now, the criminal who harmed my daughter is a murderer and I am yet to see what the security officials are doing,” the father said. “He is still free and might even flee.”

Trans Nzoia County Police Commander Jeremiah ole Kosiom said Monday that Cheptegei’s partner, Dickson Ndiema, bought a can of gasoline, poured it on her and set her ablaze during a disagreement Sunday. Ndiema was also burned and was being treated at the same hospital.

Menach said Ndiema was still in the intensive care unit with burns over 30% of his body but was “improving and stable.”

Cheptegei’s parents said their daughter bought land in Trans Nzoia to be near Kenya’s many athletic training centers. A report filed by the local chief said Cheptegei and Ndiema were heard fighting before the attack over the land where her house was built.

The Uganda Athletics Federation eulogized Cheptegei on the social platform X, writing, “We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our athlete, Rebecca Cheptegei, early this morning who tragically fell victim to domestic violence. As a federation, we condemn such acts and call for justice. May her soul rest In Peace.”

Uganda Olympic Committee President Donald Rukare called the attack “a cowardly and senseless act that has led to the loss of a great athlete.”

Kenya’s Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said the government would ensure justice for the victim.

“This tragedy is a stark reminder that we must do more to combat gender-based violence in our society, which in recent years has reared its ugly head in elite sporting circles,” he wrote in a statement.

In 2023, Ugandan Olympic runner and steeplechaser Benjamin Kiplagat was found dead with stab wounds. In 2022, Kenyan-born Bahraini athlete Damaris Muthee was found dead and a postmortem report stated that she was strangled. In 2021, long distance runner Agnes Tirop was stabbed to death at her home. Her husband, Ibrahim Rotich, was arrested and charged with murder, the case is ongoing.

Kenya’s very high rates of violence against women have prompted marches by ordinary citizens in towns and cities this year.

Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.

The birdsong is quiet by the track at Soka University on a July afternoon, and the branches of the surrounding tree canopy barely shiver from the warm breeze through the San Joaquin Hills, and Frech is the only consistent source of noise on campus. The 19-year-old Paralympian talks while he stretches, raising his voice as he presses a Theragun to his thigh. He talks while he rolls a sleeve over the stump of his left leg. He talks while he suctions a running blade to his knee. His sentences brake and accelerate, crashing into one another, a young man cursed with a self-described ambitious mind.

He went to bed at 10 p.m. on the Fourth of July. Parties bore him. Kickbacks bore him. TV series, movies – any self-described “stupid piece(s) of content” – bore him. The same itch, invariably, creeps in.

“I,” Frech says, “could be saving the world right now.”

He was born with congenital limb differences and fingers missing on his left hand, his left leg amputated when he was 2½ years old. By 9 years old, he was speaking on “Ellen” as an advocate for people with physical disabilities in sports. By 11 years old, he’d solidified a dream to become a Paralympian.

Everyone on Earth, Frech feels, has a butterfly effect. This is his. He has spent his young life sharing the story of his young life, preaching to an ever-growing audience of more than 500,000 combined followers on Instagram and TikTok. A few months ago, he committed to USC for track and field, becoming – according to Team USA – the first above-the-knee amputee to earn a Division I track and field scholarship. His very purpose as a human being, Frech believes, is centered around two realities.

1) His life’s calling is to change the way the entirety of human society views disability.

2) To do that, he must become the greatest Paralympian of all time.

“I believe I can be that person,” Frech says, with all the self-assuredness of a grown adult and all the self-assuredness of a 19-year-old. “But you have to win. Have to win. No one cares if I don’t win, you know?”

Frech drove from Los Angeles to Aliso Viejo for a workout, repeating the same manifestations to himself into the thin air inside his orange Toyota.

I am the Paralympic champion. I am the Paralympic champion. I am the Paralympic champion.

A couple of hours later, he walks back to the edge of the track at Soka, trying to place himself in Florida, host of the Paralympic trials July 18-20.

“Game on the line,” coach Ryan Sanders shouts, waiting by a high jump bar.

“Game on the line,” Frech mutters.

He claps three times. He bellows, for nobody but himself. Wooh! And he bounds toward the bar, leaps, bends – and nicks it off with his right leg.

Frech comes up wincing. Damn. He reviews the film with Sanders. Another, he decides, walking back to the edge of the track. He claps three times. He bellows, for nobody but himself. Wooh! And he bounds toward the bar, leaps, bends – and nicks it off, again, with his right leg.

By all accounts, they are encouraging failures, his leg the only part of his body that touched the bar. Frech smiles. But he still chides himself, watching the last attempt back on Sanders’ camera.

“Ah, Jesus,” he mumbles, a young man who holds himself against a much grander scale.

Somewhere, a butterfly flaps its wings.

Shooting for a world record

Three days earlier, more than 5,600 miles away in Leverkusen, Germany, a jumper from the Netherlands named Joel de Jong obliterated the Paralympic long-jump world record in Frech’s T63 class with a mark of 7.67 meters.

For several minutes on the track, it’s all Frech can talk about, and he can talk about plenty. “How (expletive) crazy is that?” he asks Sanders, who shakes his head in agreement.

Frech’s eyes pop. Wide. Now, he tells Sanders, he has to jump 7.50 meters in Paris come late August. He pulls out his phone, showing his coach a video of a recent workout, where he performs step-ups with heavy chains draped around his neck – on his amputated leg.

“I called Ari, my strength and conditioning coach,” Frech says, “and I said, ‘We got to go crazy on the left side.’”

Ari is Ariyon Tolbert, a trainer who first met Frech two years ago at a mutual friend’s house. That day, Tolbert asked Frech if he wanted to hit some core exercises. The kid agreed, and started doing sit-ups. He hit Tolbert’s target number, and kept going. And kept going.

“He embraces difficulty,” Tolbert said, “like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

Every day since May 26, Frech has posted a day-in-the-life TikTok to his account – username “One leg man” – labeled “Day X/100 until I win Paralympic Gold.” And his goal at the Paralympic trials, held a month before the Games kick off in late August, isn’t simply to qualify. Frech wants to shatter his own high-jump world record, set at last year’s Para World Championships in Paris.

“If I come in jumping my world record of 1.95 (meters) and I don’t jump above it because I want to save it for the big moment, then the energy there is totally different,” Frech says Tuesday, “than if I were to be walking into Paris having blown out the world record.”

“These guys are thinking to themselves, ‘No way.’”

The blatancy here isn’t new. Before those World Championships in 2023, a friend called Frech and suggested he stop so publicly verbalizing his goals. Family members have told him the same. His peers back at Brentwood High, Frech said, thought he was cocky. Folks in his DMS think he’s cocky, too.

He is cocky. Frech wants people to think he is. He wants the public to see an unafraid 19-year-old, a torchbearer for those beaten down by society. He was raised from a young age by parents Clayton and Bahar – the former the CEO of non-profit Angel City Sports, the latter a longtime actress in “Crash” and the “Saw” franchise – to be unapologetic for his differences.

Growing up, Frech would wear shorts at every opportunity, because he wanted people to see his left leg.

“For me, it’s –” Frech says Tuesday, getting up off a bench to mime puffing his chest out, “‘This is me. This is who I am.’”

He wants eyeballs. Frech points to the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark, riding the momentum created off so many greats before her to explode the popularity of women’s basketball. He points to Michael Phelps, who helped propel Olympic swimming into mainstream coverage. He wants people to watch him in Paris and hope he wins, sure. He wants people to watch him in Paris and hope he fails, too.

“And I won’t,” Frech adds. “But.”

The butterfly effect

A few minutes after Frech finishes his Tuesday workout, he pulls out his phone and points to his background.

The words “Never again” sit underneath the time, superimposed upon two photos. The first shows the medalists at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, where a 16-year-old Frech finished fifth in the high jump. The second shows the podium at May’s Para Athletics World Championship in Kobe, Japan, where Frech stands, with eyes of steel, on the second-place step next to Indian winner Mariyappan Thangavelu.

After he lost that May, Frech went up to Thangavelu and shook his hand.

“Congratulations, sir,” Frech told Thangavelu.

“That’s the last one you’ll ever get.”

On Instagram, a few days later, he posted the photo of the winner’s podium in Kobe and tagged Thangavelu as “enjoy.it.while.it.lasts.”

“The truth is, I will never lose another international competition,” Frech tells the Southern California News Group, and he means it.

When Frech returned to the States with a silver medal that May, he received nothing but hearty congratulations. Smiles. Handshakes. Frech smiled back. He shook hands back. He held his tongue. Most people have an average mindset, he believes. So he did not tell them the hurt that burned in his gut, the agony of failing his self-imposed purpose as a human being, because that would be impossible to explain within a smile and a handshake.

If I don’t win, more people with disabilities around the world will die.

He must do this, Frech feels. He must become a Paralympic champion, and a champion for his community, because if he fails – he rattles off, rapid-fire – more in his community will struggle with mental health. They will face fewer job opportunities. They will have less access to physical activity.

And it has to be him. If not him, who else?

“I feel, on my back, the burden of making the world more inclusive for those with disabilities,” Frech says.

Committing to USC in February was a direct step toward that goal, a platform that would allow him to continue working with Angel City Sports, which provides widespread access to adaptive sports opportunities in Southern California, and segue directly into competing in the LA 2028 Paralympic Games. But his college journey won’t be easy. During Frech’s recruitment, USC assistant coach Jeff Petersmeyer told him directly he might not travel to many conference meets at his current marks. At the USC-UCLA dual meet this past year, for example, the lowest long jump mark of the six-person field was 7.16 meters; Frech’s personal best is 6.94 meters, set in March.

Frech doesn’t care. He is prepared to lose in practice, in some capacity, every single day of his college career. But he will invariably step onto the track as part of the field at some future Big Ten meet, and he will compete, and he will post the moment to his hundreds of thousands of social-media followers, and in his eyes traditionally superficial concepts of likes and views will become tiny tangible agents of change in normalizing disability.

“You know how many people are going to be at these track meets with me, thinking, ‘What the hell is happening right now, I didn’t even know someone with one leg can run, and this kid’s out here out-jumping me?’” Frech says. “That’s what I want.”

“I want to break the barriers,” he continues. “I want to shock people. I want to change the way they view someone who’s an amputee.”

He walks off the track Tuesday, and begins climbing the long set of stairs back up to the main campus at Soka, bracing his hand on the railing and hip-swiveling his left leg up every step. On the walk back into the garage, Frech delivers one final message, a direct affirmation of his purpose.

“I genuinely believe I can do it,” Frech says, speaking of the Paralympics, speaking of everything. “At the core of my soul,” he continues, gesturing at his chest, “I think I can do it.”

He climbs back into his Toyota, back for another drive of manifesting a dream he just might shoot high enough to reach.

I am the Paralympic champion. I am the Paralympic champion. I am the Paralympic champion.

This was originally published July 15, 2024 by the Los Angeles Daily News

PARIS (AP) — Just weeks after hosting the Olympics, Paris began the final chapter of its summer of sports Wednesday with the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games.

French President Emmanuel Macron officially declared the Games open in a ceremony held outside the confines of a stadium, just like when the Olympics opened in the city on July 26.

Against the backdrop of a setting sun, thousands of athletes paraded down the famed Champs-Elysées avenue to Place de la Concorde in central Paris.

About 50,000 people watched the ceremony in stands built around the iconic square, which is the biggest in Paris and is visible from afar because of its ancient Egyptian Obelisk. Accessibility for athletes in wheelchairs was facilitated with strips of asphalt laid along the avenue and placed over the square.

More than 4,000 athletes with physical, visual and intellectual impairments will compete in 22 sports from Thursday until Sept. 8.

Under the gaze of Macron, International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons, fighter planes flew overhead, leaving red-white-and blue vapors in the colors of the French national flag, before the delegations entered the square in alphabetical order.

Some delegations were huge — more than 250 athletes from Brazil — and some were tiny — less than a handful from Barbados and just three from Myanmar.

Although Wednesday night’s show started at 8 p.m. local time, fans had gathered hours earlier under a scorching sun to get top spots along the way. As performers entertained the crowd on stage, volunteers danced alongside Paralympians as they waved their national flags and the sky gave off a postcard-perfect orange glow.

Ukraine’s delegation got a loud cheer and some of the crowd stood to applaud them.

The French delegation arrived last and to roars from the crowd, which then sang along to popular French songs, including “Que Je T’aime” by late rocker Johnny Hallyday.

Lucky Love, a French singer who lost his left arm at birth, was joined by performers in wheelchairs when he sang on stage. Then, as the national anthem played, the Obelisk lit up in the colors of the French flag.

Organizers had promised another spectacular show to open the Games. Once again it was held outside of a stadium, but unlike the rain-soaked Olympic opening ceremony on July 26, which featured a boat parade on the Seine River, the Paralympic ceremony was exclusively on land.

Organizers say more than 2 million of the 2.8 million tickets have been sold for the various Paralympic events.

Tony Estanguet, the president of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, called Paralympians “immense champions who we have the honor of being with tonight.”

The first medals handed out on Thursday will be in taekwondo, table tennis, swimming and track cycling. Athletes are grouped by impairment levels to ensure as level a playing field as possible. Only two sports, goalball and boccia, don’t have an Olympic equivalent.

Parsons said that the big crowds expected in Paris will mean a lot to the athletes, many of whom competed in front of empty stands at the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parsons hoped the Paralympics would serve “as a powerful force for good” amid ongoing global tensions.

The closing ceremony will be held at Stade de France, the national stadium.

PARIS (AP) — The message is clear: Paralympians are not participating. They are competing.

A number of athletes preparing for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games have proclaimed that on their social feeds over the past few days, reminding the world that Olympians are not the only athletes coming to Paris looking for gold.

The games will be underway next week with the opening ceremony on Wednesday. Athletes and the games’ own social and creative teams have been taking a more aggressive approach to their messaging, leaning into disabilities and being willing to risk discomfiting their audience to introduce athletes and their personalities, not just their disabilities.

The International Paralympic Committee has released several YouTube videos to show the edgier side of its competitors, including : “ Paris 2024: What Really Matters ” and “ Paris 2024: 100 Days to Go – Welcome to the Paralympics.” The tagline for both: “This is the Paralympics… they’re not playing games.”

‘A Guy With No Arms’

If you didn’t know the characters, the “What Really Matters” series opens on a jarring note. A genial 5-foot-6-inch man grasps a car’s steering wheel with his foot. He leans over to his passenger and says with a sideways smile, “Is this your first time riding in a car with a guy without arms?”

The guy with no arms is Paralympic silver medalist Matt Stutzman, who has built up a brand as the “Armless Archer.” He maneuvers the car with his feet: left foot on the pedals, right foot on the steering wheel.

Stutzman’s passenger is Chuck Aoki, a wheelchair rugby player joining Stutzman on Team USA. In the YouTube series, Stutzman hosts Aoki and para track and field athlete Scout Bassett telling their stories from a different point of view with humor thrown in.

“There’s that connection; it’s like an unspoken bond,” said Stutzman, who earned a silver medal in the men’s individual compound open at the London games in 2012. “I might not know who Bassett is, but we both know that we both had to go through something specific to even get to the level where we’re at in sport.”

Edgy takes

The IPC has received criticism for leaning into the disabilities of their athletes, but spokesman Craig Spence said the irreverent approach was necessary.

“If you speak to Paralympians, they’ve got a great sense of humor. They’re not wrapped up in cotton wool and protected from society,” Spence said in an interview earlier this year.

“They like to laugh about themselves,” he said. “Like we all do, and that’s why we’ve tried to be really edgy on the Paralympic TikTok account.”

Spence said the criticism the IPC had received came mostly from people outside the community of people with disabilities, and the comments often ask who the admin is on the account — implying it’s someone making fun of disabilities. But according to Spence, the “admin” is 2008 Paralympian Richard Fox from Britain.

A few videos have gone viral on the account. One video captured single-leg cyclist Darren Hicks winning time trial para-cycling gold in Tokyo with an altered audio sounding like a Marine drill sergeant yelling “left, left, left.”

Another audio that had viewers in shock in the comments section featured double-arm amputee Zheng Tao bumping into the wall with his head to claim gold at the London 2012 games.

For Stutzman, this content enables him and his teammates to tell the world they are not disabled people; they’re athletes with a range of capabilities who happen to have disabilities.

“It took the Paralympic Games and archery to make the world a believer that people with physical disabilities can literally do what everybody else can do,” Stutzman said.

___

Ana Escamilla is a student in the undergraduate certificate program in the Carmical Sports Media Institute at the University of Georgia.

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AP Paralympics https://apnews.com/hub/paralympic-games

The first step for swimmer Ali Truwit was overcoming her newfound fear of the one place she had always felt safe — the water.

Because the sound of water, any sound involving water, instantly triggered flashbacks to the day she swam for her life after being bitten by a shark.

She and a friend were snorkeling in the ocean off Turks and Caicos on May 24, 2023, when a shark charged and bit Truwit’s lower left leg. Bleeding and with the shark circling, Truwit went into competitive swim mode and raced 75 yards toward the safety of the boat. Truwit was rushed to the hospital and airlifted to the United States, where she had three surgeries, including one to amputate her leg below the knee.

To reclaim her love of the water, she went to the family’s backyard pool. She waded up to her waist, fought off fear and took back control. The plunge not only started her path toward healing but to Paris for the Paralympics.

“I love comeback stories,” said the 24-year-old from Darien, Connecticut, who qualified for Paris in the 100 free, 400 free and the 100 back. “I’ve definitely relied on other people’s comeback stories to help me hold on to what feels like a bold and unrealistic hope — of fighting off a shark and surviving and losing a limb and making the Paralympics all in a year.”

The shark attack — “we tried to fight back”

Her itinerary for that summer involved fun and adventure before starting work at a consulting firm.

Truwit had just graduated from Yale after a career in the pool in which she was a four-year letter winner. She kicked things off by running a marathon with her mom on Mother’s Day.

Next on the list: joining friends for some sun on the beaches in Turks and Caicos. She went snorkeling with Yale teammate and good friend Sophie Pilkinton in an area not known for sharks.

On their way back to the boat, a shark aggressively approached and began bumping them.

“We tried to fight back,” Truwit said.

What was believed to be a bull shark bit her on the foot and lower leg.

“My immediate thought was, ‘Am I crazy or do I not have a foot right now?’” Truwit said. “It was a really hard image for me. But you move immediately into action.”

Stay calm. Remain conscious. Just get to the boat. That’s all she focused on as she and Pilkinton sprinted through the water, intensely aware the shark was still there.

Once on the boat, Pilkinton applied a tourniquet to slow the bleeding.

Truwit was later airlifted to a trauma hospital in Miami for two surgeries to fight infections. She was transported to a hospital in New York, where on her 23rd birthday, she underwent a transtibial — below-the-knee — amputation.

“A lot of dark days,” she said. “But I’m alive and I almost wasn’t.”

Work works becomes the mantra for recovery

The Truwit family has a mantra — “Work works.” That’s why Truwit went to rehab even on days when she didn’t feel good or was sad.

“Just put in the work,” she said.

First, though, she needed to alter her “Why?”

Instead of, “Why did this happen to me?” she centered on, “Why not throw everything into something?”

More specifically, why not the Paralympics? After all, she had plenty of time to get ready for the 2028 Summer Paralympics in Los Angeles.

“But I’m not someone who waits,” she said.

So Paris in 2024 it was, even if the time frame was incredibly tight.

She went through prosthetic training and strength exercises. She also worked with trauma therapists, which led to narrative therapy to re-author her life and combat her nightmares.

“So that I don’t let fear rule my life,” Truwit explained. “I had lost enough and anything that was on the table for me to regain, I was going to fight to regain it.

“I didn’t want to lose a limb and my love of the water, too.”

Focus on making Team USA for Paris

About 3 1/2 months removed from the attack, she was competing again. It was early but necessary to make certain standards to be in contention for a Paralympic spot. To help her, she teamed up with her club coach, Jamie Barone.

“I was just really curious how I was going to feel being back on the pool deck and back in a competitive space,” Truwit said. “The more I worked at it, the flashbacks reduced and the pain lessened.”

She qualified for nationals in Orlando, Florida, where she swam freestyle and backstroke. In April, she attended an international meet in Portugal — her first trip out of the country since the shark attack. Her mom was there as she shined in the 400 free S10 category, in which swimmers have a physical impairment affecting one of their joints.

“She’s just basically a workhorse who refuses to give up,” said her mom, Jody. “That’s who she was before the attack and amputation and that’s who she is every single day now.”

At U.S. Paralympic trials in Minneapolis in late June, she won the 100 backstroke, 400 free and 100 free. She joins a team that includes Paralympic swimming great Jessica Long and a host of returning medalists from Tokyo.

“I think hearing my name on that team was just a reminder to me that I’m stronger than I think,” said Truwit, who launched the “Stronger than you think” foundation to help others navigate through the healing process. “That we’re all stronger than we think.”

In Paris, she will have the support of about 50 family members and friends.

“A year ago, I was just working to get back in the water,” Truwit said. “I now get back in the water and that sense of joy comes back, and the smile comes back. To have that again is something I’m so thankful for. Honestly, it’s one of the moments in my swim career that I’m the proudest of, because I know how much work it took.”

Video journalist Aron Ranen contributed to this report.

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Just four days before the start of the Paralympic Games, the athletes village was buzzing with activity on Saturday as athletes from 168 delegations were settling into their temporary home, preparing for their upcoming competitions.

The village, nestled in the northern suburbs of Paris, in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, closed its doors on Aug. 13 after the conclusion of the Olympic Games, giving organizers a week to make necessary adjustments for the upcoming Paralympics.

Laurent Michaud, head of the Paralympic Village, discussed the rapid yet meticulous transformation. The village had been built with inclusivity in mind from the start, but this final week was crucial for fine-tuning details to ensure that every aspect was perfectly suited to the para-athletes’ needs.

“All roadways, sidewalks and access points are fully accessible for people with reduced mobility. It is a 100% accessible village,” he explained.

The village reopened on Aug. 21, transformed to meet the specific needs of the 4,400 para-athletes.

Among the most significant adjustments were additional ramps and enhanced lighting throughout the village, making it easier for athletes to navigate, regardless of mobility or visual impairments. Sandy floors and grates that could have posed challenges to wheelchair users were covered with mats.

Motorized devices were also made available for wheelchair users, offering a powered boost that made getting around the village faster and more enjoyable. These quickly became a favorite among the athletes, adding an element of fun to their mobility.

One scene that captured this joy involved three athletes from Iran. They were spotted zipping through the main alley leading to the dining hall, with one athlete using the motorized device while the others clung to their companion’s shoulders, laughing as they enjoyed the ride.

Ludivine Munos, a former French para-athlete and head of integration for Paris 2024, praised the village’s setup, calling it a “paradise” for the para-athletes.

“The goal was to provide the best possible experience for the athletes during their stay, ensuring that they could focus entirely on their performance without worrying about accessibility issues,” Munos said.

Smaller adjustments were also made to enhance daily life. In the dining hall, tables were spaced out for wheelchair accessibility and some chairs were removed to create a more open layout.

Philipp Wurz, head of food and beverage, emphasized these subtle yet important changes. Products in fridges were displayed on all shelves to ensure that wheelchair users or athletes of short stature could easily access them. Volunteers were also on hand to provide assistance to athletes who required help carrying their trays. For those who wished to carry them on their laps, a thin layer of rubber was added to prevent food from slipping.

Within the living quarters, electrical outlets were installed at a height of 45 cm (17 inches) from the ground, eliminating the need for wheelchair users to strain themselves by reaching down. In the bathrooms, grab bars were strategically placed—one attached securely to the wall and another with suction cups, providing flexibility for different needs.

“The smallest details can make major improvements for para-athletes,” Wurz noted.

Beyond these practical adjustments, para-athletes could also enjoy a range of services, including a bakery, massage salon, grocery store, 24-hour gym, hair and nail salon and a free clinic all available within the village.

The Paralympic Games will begin on Aug. 28, and conclude on Sept. 8.

This is an event that highlights the human ability to overcome hardships and disabilities, so the word “insurmountable” isn’t one you’re likely to hear in Paris over the next two weeks as around 4,400 athletes with a wide range of life-impacting impairments compete for medals in 549 events across 22 sports.

“If it seems impossible, then it can be done!” Italian fencer Bebe Vio says on her website.

She will be vying for her third consecutive gold medal in wheelchair fencing. After contracting meningitis as a child, doctors amputated both her forearms and both her legs at the knees to save her life.

Here’s a look at some of the other events that athletes will be competing in at the Paralympics and how competitors are categorized based on their disability or impairment.

Which sports are in the Paralympics?

Of the 22 Paralympic sports, only two do not have an Olympic equivalent — goalball and boccia.

Goalball is played on an indoor court the size of a volleyball court with goals set up at each end. Teams of visually impaired or blind players (wearing eyeshades to ensure fairness) take turns rolling a ball containing bells toward the opposing goal while the defending team’s players act as goalkeepers.

In boccia, players throw or roll leather balls as close as they can to a small ball called a jack.

Other wheelchair sports include basketball, fencing, rugby and tennis.

The other sports are sitting volleyball, blind soccer, and para archery, athletics, badminton, canoe, cycling, equestrian, judo, powerlifting, rowing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo and triathlon.

Blind soccer involving teams of five playing with a ball containing rattles will be played beside the Eiffel Tower.

Who can qualify to compete at the Paralympics?

To compete at the Paralympics, athletes must have “an underlying health condition that leads to a permanent eligible impairment,” the International Paralympic Committee says.

Impairments can be caused by the likes of cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, amputations, physical injuries or an intellectual impairment, blindness or reduced sight.

How are athletes classified?

To ensure fair competition between Paralympians, athletes are grouped by how limited they are by their impairment — in other words, how much of an effect it has on their ability to compete in their chosen sport.

The classifications aim to ensure that every competitor has a fair chance to win and that “sporting excellence determines which athlete or team is ultimately victorious,” the International Paralympic Committee says.

Different types of impairments

The Paralympics divide impairments into the three groups: physical, visual and intellectual. Physical impairments are further divided into eight categories, including impaired muscle power, impaired range of movement, limb deficiency and short stature.

Every individual Paralympic sport determines which impairment types they have competitions for.

Some, like para athletics and para swimming, have competitions for athletes with every type of impairment, while others have just one category. Goalball, for instance, is only for teams of players who are blind or visually impaired.

Assessment and sports classes

All Paralympians undergo an assessment by a panel of experts to determine which sports class they should compete in based on the degree and nature of their impairment. Each sport has its own criteria for how to assess the eligibility of competitors. Some, like para powerlifting, only have one sports class. Para athletics, which is open to athletes with any impairment, has more than 50 sports classes.

The classification system focuses on grouping together athletes with similar functional abilities rather than similar disabilities, so athletes with different impairments can compete against each other if they are allocated to the same sports class.

PARIS (AP) — Creative director Thomas Jolly has some lofty goals for Wednesday’s opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, when the heart of Paris will once again become the stage for a stunning artistic display.

The outdoor ceremony at the Champs-Elysees and Place de La Concorde — a site where several members of the royal family were beheaded during the French Revolution — is aiming to challenge and reshape society’s perceptions of disabilities.

“When we cut off the heads of the king and queen here, it changed society once. Maybe this ceremony will be the second time we change society,” said Jolly, who was also in charge of the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics last month.

On Monday, under the sweltering Parisian sun, a hundred dancers, including 20 performers with disabilities, gathered at La Concorde for a final rehearsal under the secrecy of huge banners closing the square. The site hosted several competitions during the Olympics and has now been transformed into a grand open arena centered around the ancient Luxor Obelisk, the French capital’s oldest monument.

Jolly said dance will be central to the show, celebrating all types of bodies through the universal language of movement. Swedish director Alexander Ekman has crafted a rhythmic spectacle where dancers — using crutches, wheelchairs, or adapted tricycles — will interact with pulsating beats.

The music of the event is once again in the hands of Victor Le Masne, who also composed the entire score for the Paris Olympics.

On the eve of the Paralympic rehearsals, Le Masne welcomed a group of journalists into a secluded Parisian studio, offering a sneak peek of the track titled “Sportography,” a blend of organic sports sounds and drum rhythms that captures the essence of athleticism, incorporating real-life elements like the screeching of shoes and the hard breathing of athletes.

Reflecting on his recent collaborations with Céline Dion and Lady Gaga for the Olympic Opening Ceremony, Le Masne shared a few insights into the intense creative process.

He vividly described attending a private rehearsal at the top of the Eiffel Tower, where Dion performed “Hymn to Love” at 3 a.m., just hours before the ceremony. Despite obstacles like rain and Dion’s ongoing health challenges, Le Masne knew that her performance would be nothing short of grandiose.

And he was equally impressed by Lady Gaga.

“I had to work on the ‘Mon Truc en Plumes’ arrangement and then flew to Los Angeles to pitch the idea to her management,” he said. “They loved it, and Gaga immediately immersed herself in learning about French cabaret culture, even perfecting the pronunciation of the old-timey French song. Her professionalism was awe-inspiring.”

For the Paralympics, Le Masne’s approach has evolved.

“This time, I wanted to put the athletes first,” he said, emphasizing the importance of incorporating the physical and emotional sounds of sport.

The ceremony will also see the athletes parade down a section of the Champs-Elysees, Paris’s most iconic avenue, and special efforts have been made to ensure accessibility. The traditional cobblestones have been temporarily covered with a thin layer of asphalt to accommodate wheelchair users. That asphalt layer will be removed after the end of the Paralympic Games, on Sept. 8, said Thierry Reboul, who oversees all Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies.

Unlike the Olympic Opening Ceremony on the Seine, which was marked by stringent security and pouring rain, this event will allow the public to freely watch from along the Champs-Elysees and near the Louvre Museum.

The weather promises to cooperate this time, too, with bright sunshine and clear skies in the forecast.

“But we’re still pretty cautious about that last part,” Reboul joked about the weather conditions.

PARIS (AP) — More than 4,000 athletes from around the world will compete in 22 sports during the Aug. 28-Sept. 8 Paralympics in Paris.

Here are some of them:

America’s veterans

Tatyana McFadden and Jessica Long are legends on the Paralympic stage.

McFadden, a wheelchair racer, and Long, a swimmer, will each make their sixth summer games appearance in France.

In 2014, McFadden even made a Winter Paralympics appearance in Sochi, and she dominated the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro with six medals, including four gold. She was honored that year by the U.S. Olympic Committee and won the Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award at the Rio Paralympics for outstanding performance and sportsmanship. She also was featured in “Rising Phoenix,” a Netflix film about the Paralympic movement.

Competing in sprinting and various distance track events, McFadden also will help defend her gold medal in the 4 x100-meter universal relay. The event debuted in Tokyo, where she was a part of a world-record setting team.

Long, meanwhile, has earned a staggering 29 medals, including eight gold, in swimming events since she was 12 and the youngest American on the 2004 U.S. team in Athens. And she, too, has made a pop culture impact, as the subject of a 2021 Super Bowl commercial from Toyota.

After the Paralympic swimming trials in Minneapolis, Long was one of 21 female swimmers selected to the 2024 U.S. team. Leading up to Paris, she spent time training in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

Nick Mayhugh — United States

Soccer is his love, but sprinting made him a Paralympic gold medalist.

At 14 years old, Nick Mayhugh was diagnosed with cerebral palsy — a “dead spot” on the right side of his brain affects the mobility of the left side of his body.

Yet he never stopped competing. Mayhugh played Division I soccer at Radford University before representing the U.S. on the seven-a-side National Soccer Team in 2017. In 2019 he helped earn bronze at the Lima Parapan American Games with eight goals in six games.

However, since soccer is played between blind athletes at the Paralympics, Mayhugh started to train as a sprinter. He left Tokyo with three gold medals, one silver and the world records for his classification in the 100 meters and 200 meters.

Now he’ll be back sprinting in the 100-meter and 400-meter races and Mayhugh also will try medaling in a new event for the first time — the long jump. The first time Mayhugh ever competed in the long jump in a major competition was at the Paralympic Trials in July. He won his classification with a jump of 6.19 meters (20 feet, 3.7 inches).

Valentina Petrillo — Italy

Italy’s Valentina Petrillo will become the first transgender athlete to compete in the Paralympics.

In Paris, the 50-year-old runner will compete in the 200 meters and 400 meters in the women’s T-12 classification for athletes with visual impairments. At 14, Petrillo was diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition.

Between 2015 and 2018, Petrillo won 11 national titles in the men’s category before transitioning in 2019. Last year, Petrillo won two bronze medals at the World Para Athletics Championships.

She sees competing at the Paralympics as a symbol of inclusion in world sport.

Maximiliano Espinillo — Argentina

With a bronze in Rio and a silver in Tokyo, Maximiliano Espinillo looks to complete the set and earn a gold in Paris.

The Argentina soccer player has been blind since age 4 because of a virus resulting in retinal detachment.

Espinillo, Argentina’s star striker, first competed in the 2015 Toronto Parapan American Games before making his Paralympic debut one year later in Rio.

In last summer’s ISBA Men’s Blind Football World Championship, Argentina defeated China after a penalty shootout in the championship match and Espinillo was awarded as the tournament’s MVP.

The rivalry between Argentina and Brazil runs deep. Since blind football was introduced to the Paralympics in 2004, Brazil has won every gold medal and never lost a Paralympic match.

The two played in a group stage match at the Parapan American Games in Santiago last fall where Espinillo’s lone goal was enough to defeat the sport’s powerhouse. Ultimately, Brazil did win the title, and Argentina finished in third. But it was still a step in the right direction for the Argentines and potentially a sign of what’s to come in Paris.

Alexis Hanquinquant — France

The Normandy native will defend his triathlon gold medal on home soil. Hanquinquant is the heavy favorite to finish with another gold medal. He ranks No. 1 in the World Triathlon Para Rankings for the PTS4 classification and has already won three triathlons this year.

The six-time European and world champion had his right leg amputated just below the knee in 2013 after a work accident about three years earlier where agricultural equipment crushed it.

Before the accident, Hanquinquant was a multisport athlete and he knew that wouldn’t change. He wanted to challenge himself by training for the triathlon. In 2016, he won his first event, but it was after the qualification window for the Rio games passed, so his Paralympic debut had to wait.

Competing in Tokyo was a milestone moment but now, three years later, Hanquinquant will be one of France’s flag bearers during the opening ceremony on Wednesday.

Sarah Storey — Britain

Since 1992, Sarah Storey has found glory at the Paralympics. The 2024 Games will be her ninth time representing Britain but only her fifth as a cyclist.

Storey first appeared on the Paralympic stage as a swimmer and won 16 medals over four Paralympic games, but an ear infection in 2005 forced her out of the water and onto a bike.

As a cyclist, she competes in time trials and road race events. Storey currently has 12 cycling gold medals to her name. Add in the five from swimming and those 17 golds and 28 medals overall and that makes her Britain’s most decorated Paralympian.

In Tokyo, she struck gold in the pursuit, road race and road time trial events. She will defend all three titles in Paris.

Oksana Masters — United States

Oksana Masters has 17 medals across three Paralympic sports: Nordic skiing, rowing and cycling.

Adopted from an orphanage in Ukraine when she was 7, Masters was born with congenital disabilities because of radiation poisoning from the Chernobyl nuclear accident. When she was 14, her legs were amputated above her knees.

Sports became a way to showcase her power and strength. The 2012 London Paralympics were Masters’ first time representing the United States — Paris will mark her seventh Paralympics. She’s also competed in every winter games since 2014 as a Nordic skier.

In London, Masters took home a bronze medal as a rower, but hasn’t competed in rowing since. While rehabbing a back injury she turned to cycling and hasn’t looked back.

In her first games as a cyclist in Rio, Masters didn’t reach the podium. But in Tokyo, she brought home two gold medals in the time trial and road race events that she will defend in Paris.

Lin Suiling — China

Lin Suiling has been on China’s wheelchair basketball team since 2016, and in 2017 she was named the captain. Rio was Lin’s first Paralympic games and China failed to reach the podium.

In Tokyo, however, China earned silver after falling to the Netherlands 50-31 in the gold medal game. However, it was China’s first ever medal in the sport. Lin is one of the few returners from that team striving for gold in Paris.

Leading up to the Paralympics, China has been dominating tournaments. In January’s Asia-Oceania Wheelchair Basketball Championship, it won all six games for the title. The championship victory directly qualified the team for Paris and Lin was named to the All-Star team as the tournament’s most valuable player.

The Netherlands still poses a strong threat to China. In the 2022 world championships, the Dutch beat out Lin and her team once again, although it was the best China has ever performed in that tournament.

Lin and her teammates are looking to take the final step to gold, and Paris might be the stage where it happens.

Amanda Vogt is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.

PARIS (AP) — Let the games begin again.

The Paralympic Games are set to open Wednesday as some 4,400 athletes with disabilities, permanent injuries or impairments prepare to compete for 549 medals across 22 sports over 11 days in Paris.

The French capital, which just hosted the Olympics, again provides the backdrop for what promises to be another spectacle, with many of the same venues hosting Paralympic competitions.

Historic square Place de la Concorde, which hosted skateboarding, breaking and 3×3 basketball during the Olympics, will host the opening ceremony.

Equestrian returns to Château de Versailles, which will host para equestrian events. The Grand Palais transitions from fencing to wheelchair fencing. Archery venue Invalides will host para archery.

The venue beside the Eiffel Tower, which hosted beach volleyball during the Olympics, will host blind soccer, an adaption of the game for visually impaired players in teams of five with a ball containing rattles.

“We’ve got some monstrous iconic sites, and we’re going to get an eyeful,” France’s para triathlon champion, Alexis Hanquinquant, said. “Paris is the most beautiful city in the world. I think we’re going to have some pretty exceptional Paralympic Games.”

Of the 22 Paralympic sports, only two do not have an Olympic equivalent — goalball and boccia. In goalball, teams of visually impaired or blind players take turns rolling a ball containing bells toward the opposing goal while the defending team’s players act as goalkeepers. In boccia, players throw or roll leather balls as close as they can to a small ball called a jack.

Compared to the previous edition of the Paralympics in Tokyo, 10 medal events have been added to give female athletes and those with high-support needs more opportunities.

The Paralympic flame was lit Saturday in Stoke Mandeville, a village northwest of London widely considered the birthplace of the Paralympic Games, and was to make its way via a torch relay under the English Channel to cities all over France before lighting the cauldron during the opening ceremony on Wednesday.

Anticipation has been building with Parisians returning from their summer vacations – the city almost felt empty at the beginning of the month with many away at the coast. For locals who missed the Olympic action, the Paralympics are a second chance to catch some of the excitement.

The athletes — Paralympians — will be the focus of attention starting Thursday in the first day of competition, when there will be medals to be won in para taekwondo, para table tennis, para swimming and para cycling on the track.

As was the case for the Olympics, there will medals up for grabs on each of the 11 days of competition.

Many of the competing athletes have titles to defend.

Para shooter Avani Lekhara, the first Indian woman to win a pair of medals at a single edition of the Paralympics, returns to defend her 10-meter air rifle gold in the SH1 category from Tokyo.

The SH1 category is for rifle shooters with lower limb impairments like amputations or paraplegia who can hold their gun without difficulty and shoot from a standing or sitting position.

American multi-sport specialist Oksana Masters won a hand-cycle road race and time trial at the Tokyo Paralympics, and she will be looking to add to her career total of seven gold and 17 medals overall in both summer and winter events.

Para powerlifter Sherif Osman of Egypt is going for his fourth gold medal, and Italian fencer Bebe Vio is vying for her third consecutive gold in wheelchair fencing. After contracting meningitis as a child, doctors amputated both her legs and her forearms to save her life.

Brazil is unbeaten in blind soccer going back to the first tournament in Athens in 2004, but France harbors hopes of an upset. The hosts kick off against China and Brazil plays Turkey on Sept. 1, a day before the teams meet for a potentially decisive match in Group A.

And there are other storylines.

Visually impaired Italian sprinter Valentina Petrillo will be the first transgender woman to compete at the Paralympics when she races in the heats for her classification in the women’s 400 meters on Sept. 2.

American swimmer Ali Truwit is competing a year after losing her lower leg in a shark attack while snorkeling.

Teenage swimmer David Kratochvil is carrying Czech hopes of a medal after losing his sight because of a serious illness about 10 years ago. The 16-year-old Kratochvil used to play ice hockey but switched to the pool, where he set world records in the 50 and 200 meter backstroke last year.

Many more wait to be told over the next two weeks.

Fahey contributed from Berlin.