10 British medal hopes to watch at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games
There are just 10 days to go until the Paris 2024 Paralympics begin, so to mark that occasion here are 10 British athletes to watch in the French capital.
Paralympic medals are getting harder to win and Great Britain will call on a panoply of talent in order to do so this summer.
UK Sport and the National Lottery invest £68m in a Paralympic World Class Programme that gives athletes with disabilities all of the tools they need to excel.
The investment in para sport is unmatched but the rest of the world is catching up, meaning the fight will be fierce across each of the 549 medal events – 200 more than the Olympics.
Sammi Kinghorn, athletics
Wheelchair racing has been dominated by Hannah Cockroft and David Weir in the last decade but now it’s time to get to know Kinghorn, an athlete who looks ready to become a household name.
The Scot, who was paralysed from the waist down aged 14 in an accident on the family farm, has turbocharged her career since collecting silver and bronze in Tokyo.
Kinghorn’s range is phenomenal. She is a world champion in the 100m sprint and holds the world record over 1500m, meaning she heads to the Paralympics with up to four gold medal chances.
Sabrina Fortune, athletics
There are worse ways to prepare for the Paralympics than improving your own world record.
That is exactly what Fortune did when she threw the shot put 14.83m in July, meaning she will arrive at the Games brimming with confidence.
The Welsh star struggled in Tokyo, finishing fifth after bronze in Rio, and could not be better placed to ensure her third Paralympic experience is the best yet.
Daniel Bethell, badminton
Bethell comes from a multi-sport background that included tries at tennis, football and cricket, but everyone in the badminton world is delighted that he chose their sport.
The Huntingdon native won all of the 21 games he played in 2022, claimed four international titles and became world No1 – not bad going.
Bethell won ParalympicsGB’s first ever badminton medal with silver in Tokyo and will be spoiling for an upgrade three years later.
Charlotte Henshaw, canoeing
Henshaw went to two Paralympics as a swimmer and her transition to canoeing has gone almost as smoothly as the path she cuts through the water, which has brought her eight world titles.
But, in 2022, Henshaw was diagnosed with the incurable condition endometriosis in which tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows elsewhere in the body, causing severe pain and other complications.
The 37-year-old has shown remarkable resilience to make it to Paris and continue to stay at the very top of her game.
Sophie Unwin, cycling
Unwin had just been made redundant from her supermarket job when she took her chances on a British Cycling talent day in August 2020. Less than a year later she had two Paralympic medals to her name.
The Devonian, who is visually impaired, has struck up a world-beating partnership with sighted pilot Jenny Holl and the pair were crowned triple world champions in Glasgow last year, the first time that Olympic and Paralympic programmes were combined.
Lauren Rowles, rowing
Rowles is poised to become the first woman to win three Paralympic gold medals in rowing.
Having won gold as a teenager at Rio 2016, the 26-year-old has battled adversity to become a dominant force and the first in her discipline to hold Paralympic, World and European titles.
With a brilliant new rowing partner in former commando Gregg Stevenson, and now a mother to newborn son Noah, Rowles has no shortage of motivation to make history
Maisie Summers-Newton, swimming
Summers-Newton has dealt remarkably well with being installed as one of the faces of British swimming as a teenager.
Now, 22, the Northampton-born star is training to be a teacher and still doling out lessons to her rivals in the pool.
She did a golden double in the 100m breaststroke and 200m at the Tokyo Paralympics and the last two World Championships and will hope for more of the same at La Defense Arena.
Amy Truesdale, taekwondo
Chester-born Truesdale has plenty of strings to her bow: coaching, modelling, and dancing to name but three.
She is no slouch at taekwondo, either, as a triple world champion, quadruple European champion and a pioneer in her sport.
Truesdale has a point to prove after settling for bronze at the first edition of Paralympic taekwondo in Tokyo and will shake on nothing less than gold at the second.
Piers Gilliver, wheelchair fencing
In early 2023, Gilliver was lying in a darkened room for weeks on end battling vicious symptoms of concussion having sustained a serious blow to the head in training.
He leant on the support of those around him, including girlfriend Valeriia Abdualimova, a Ukrainian former wheelchair fencer, and remarkably was crowned epee world champion later that year.
Gilliver made history with epee victory in Tokyo, ParalympicsGB’s first gold medal in the sport in 34 years, but a medal of any colour in Paris would arguably be an even greater achievement.
Alfie Hewett, wheelchair tennis
Hewett, who has Perthes Disease, was a soul in torment in Tokyo when it appeared the classification system would rule him as ‘not disabled enough.’
Thankfully, that has not come to pass, and Hewett will compete at his third Paralympics on the back of an incredible two years.
In 2023, he won five Grand Slam titles across singles and doubles and became the first wheelchair player to be named Player of the Year by the British Tennis Journalists’ Association.
With more than £30m a week raised for Good Causes, including vital funding into elite and grassroots sport, National Lottery players support our Olympic and Paralympic athletes to live their dreams and make the nation proud, as well as providing more opportunities for people to take part in sport. To find out more visit: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk