Largest Refugee Paralympic Team to compete at Paris 2024

BEIJING, July 11 (Xinhua) -- The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has announced eight athletes and one guide runner who will represent the IPC Refugee Paralympic Team (RPT) at the upcoming Paris Paralympic Games.

"All Paralympians have stories of incredible resilience," said IPC President Andrew Parsons. "But the stories of these athletes and their journeys as refugees surviving war and persecution to compete at the Paralympic Games are off-the-charts awe inspiring."

The eight athletes, based in six countries and regions, will compete across six sports. They are Zakia Khudadadi (Para taekwondo), Guillaume Junior Atangana (Para athletics), Ibrahim Al Hussein (Para triathlon), Salman Abbariki (Para athletics), Hadi Darvish (Para powerlifting), Sayed Amir Hossein Pour (Para table tennis), Amelio Castro Grueso (Wheelchair fencing), and Hadi Hassanzada (Para taekwondo).

"The Refugee Paralympic Team offers a model for all of us. No matter how difficult their circumstances, these athletes have found a way to compete at the very highest level of Paralympic sport. In these eight athletes and one guide, we have the strongest and best-prepared Refugee Paralympic Team in history," said RPT Chef de Mission Nyasha Mharakurwa.

The RPT will be the first team to march into the Paralympic opening ceremony on August 28, which will take place along the Champs-Elysees and in Place de la Concorde, according to the IPC.