The 4 extraordinary athletes who competed in the Olympic Games and will also compete in the Paris 2024 Paralympics

That is the number of athletes who have accomplished the feat of competing in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The story tells of a pioneer: New Zealander Neroli Susan Fairhall, who despite being paralyzed by a car accident that left her in a wheelchair, managed to compete in the 1972 Heidelberg Paralympic Games in athletics and archery.

In 1984 he competed in the Los Angeles Olympics.

And only one of those 17 has ever medalled in both events: Hungary’s Pál Szekereses, who took bronze in fencing at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

In 1991, shortly before participating in Barcelona 1992, a serious car accident left him in a wheelchair.

But that did not stop him from being a sporting figure: he won three gold medals, also in fencing, in the various Paralympic Games he participated in from 1992 to 2012.

The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, which began this Wednesday, will not be an exception to the rules for seeing Paralympic athletes who also participated in the Olympic Games, and BBC Mundo will introduce them to you.

Table tennis player Bruna Costa will become the first Brazilian to have competed in both competitions.

At 29 years old, the Paralympic athlete competed in Paris 2024, and is now preparing to achieve nothing less than a gold medal for her country at the Paralympics.

Costa had his arm amputated when he was a few months old.after a poorly administered vaccine caused a thrombosis.

As a child she always loved sports and at the age of 7, as she has said in various interviews, she discovered table tennis.

Her inspiration was another of the athletes who have participated in the Olympics and the Paralympic Games and who, like her, also plays table tennis: Natalia Partyka.

The athlete celebrated her double selection on social media, and particularly her participation in the July Olympics.

“Today is a day unlike any other I have ever woken up to in these 29 years of existence: I became the first athlete in the history of Brazil to be called up to play in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the same Olympic Games!” she wrote on her X account.

The table tennis player hopes that “One day this will be normal, that a disabled person can compete against Olympic athletes with two arms.”

The Polish player who inspired the Brazilian was born without a forearm, is left-handed and made her debut in table tennis at the age of 11 at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney.

Then She became the youngest athlete to participate in the Paralympic Games.

In Beijing 2008 she achieved another feat: she competed in both the Olympic and Paralympic competitions.

She has won five Paralympic gold medals.

For her, the possibility that people with different abilities can compete like Olympic athletes is a source of inspiration. “(The Paralympics) show that nothing is impossible,” she has said on several occasions.

Two-time Paralympic champion Asunta Legnante will be back in action in the coming weeks to compete for a shot put award.

The 46-year-old Italian native who competed in the Olympics Beijing 2008grew up with vision problems.

But it was not until four years later that she would become completely blind due to congenital glaucoma.

The Paralympic athlete dreams of making it to the next Olympic Games in Los Angeles, a date that will coincide with her 15th birthday. 50.

Legnante has pointed out in various interviews that what has motivated her to stay in the sport is the need to “to continue challenging myself, to prove to myself that I was not finished either as an athlete or as a woman.”

Australian Melissa Tapper, 34, made history at the 2016 Rio Olympics, after becoming the first athlete from her country to participate in both competitions.

In table tennis, Tapper did the same at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she won a silver medal for the women’s team.

An injury to the bracheal plexus (located in the neck) caused paralysis in one of his arms, something that did not prevent him from competing against people without diverse abilities from a very young age.

“Complications during childbirth resulted in Tapper being born with a brachial plexus injury after she tore the nerves between her neck and right shoulder when doctors removed her from her mother’s womb,” her official website details.

The young Australian tHe also participated in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

In the round of 16, she had a performance that, despite not giving her team the victory, left her more than satisfied.

Now, the Australian is preparing to continue making history at the Paralympics.