The countdown towards the Paris Paralympics reaches 500 days this Sunday (16). The event on French soil begins on August 28, 2024 and continues until September 8, with the expectation of bringing together 4,400 athletes, in 549 events in 22 sports.
Brazil, for the time being, is assured in three of them. The first was sitting volleyball, which the women’s team is guaranteed, after the unprecedented world title, obtained last November, in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina). The team will compete in two tournaments in 2023 that qualify for a place in the Games: the Pan American Championship, in Edmonton (Canada), in May, and the World Cup in Cairo (Egypt), in November. As it is already classified, the Brazilian team will use the competitions, basically, as preparation.
“There are times when even I can’t believe we’ve already won the vacancy and that there are people still chasing it. Now, it’s time to train to win the title”, celebrated Janaína Petit, player of the sitting volleyball team.
“It gives you great peace of mind. [ter classificado por antecipação], but a year and a half passes very quickly. we will test [formações e jogadas], but already have in mind what we want. I think the team will get stronger. We will be on equal terms to win the gold medal [em Paris]”, completed coach Fernando Guimarães, who is also in charge of the men’s team, which will compete in the two events of 2023 to seek a place in the Paralympics – only the champion is guaranteed.
Sitting volleyball team secured spot in Paris after winning World Cup Disclosure/World Paravolley/Reserved Rights
Brazil’s participation in 2024 is also confirmed in men’s goalball, thanks to the national team winning their third world championship, in December last year, in Matosinhos (Portugal). The sport is played by athletes with visual impairment (total or low vision) and is the only one in the Paralympic movement that is not an adaptation of some “conventional” practice.
Another modality that has assured green and yellow representation in Paris is cycling. In February, the International Cycling Union (UCI) allocated two spots to Brazil – one per gender – due to the country’s position in the men’s (leader) and women’s (second) rankings in the Americas.
Considering the three modalities, the plane from Brazil to Paris currently has 20 seats reserved: 12 for women’s seated volleyball athletes, six for men’s goalball and two for cycling. The Brazilian Paralympic Committee (CPB) wants to classify at least 250 athletes. In the Tokyo (Japan) edition, in 2021, the country had 259 representatives, including those without disabilities (guide athletes in athletics and swimming, the helmsman in rowing, the goalkeepers in soccer for the blind and the bocce coaches).
vacancies in view
There are still spots to be won in the other 19 sports. Some will be defined this year, at the Parapan American Games in Santiago (Chile), in November. In table tennis, for example, the champions of the 11 categories (male and female) go to Paris. Names like Cátia Oliveira (class 2), Israel Stroh (7), Sophia Kelmer (8) and Bruna Alexandre (10) have chances of ranking via the world ranking, which will only be closed in 2024, but they can anticipate the passport if they win the Parapan .
Another modality with competition for a vacancy in Santiago is wheelchair rugby. The Parapan American champion is assured of the Games. The Brazilian team tries, for the first time, to qualify for the Paralympics without being the host country. To reach the classification still in 2023, however, the team will have to overcome, mainly, the United States (silver in Tokyo) and Canada (where the sport emerged).
“Thinking with my feet on the ground, the path towards Paris is to be between second and third in Parapan, because there will be a qualifying tournament, between February and March 2024, with eight teams and three places. Our plan is to reach this classification and seek one of these three vacancies”, said the president of the Brazilian Wheelchair Rugby Association (ABRC), José Higino.
Three-time world champion, men’s goalball team will be at the Paralympic Games – Renan Cacioli/CBDV/Rights Reserved
In addition to table tennis and rugby, Parapan will define places like Paris in goalball, bocce, archery, soccer for the blind and rowing. In the last three, there will also be the possibility of vacancies through this year’s World Championships, which will also serve as a qualifier for four more modalities: athletics, swimming, paracanoeing and shooting.
Differently from table tennis, in which the vacancies of the Parapan American champions belong to the athletes themselves, the others belong to the country, which will define the selection criteria. At the Tokyo Games, for example, the CPB defined that gold medalists at the 2019 Athletics and Swimming World Championships would have a guaranteed place at the Paralympics. Parameters for 2024 are yet to be announced.
“I am very anxious [risos]. We have to understand that each step is a step. That’s why we have our psychologist, with whom we do a good job, to arrive well and calmly at the Worlds. And then getting that vacancy will be the result of hard work”, projected Marcelly Pedroso, a sprinter in the T37 class (cerebral palsy), who dreams of the first Paralympics of her career in Paris.
