Swimmer Takayuki Suzuki secured Japan’s first Paralympic gold in Paris on Thursday in the men’s 50-meter breaststroke, while cyclist Keiko Sugiura suffered an upset as she failed to advance to a medal race during the qualification round.
Japan has sent 175 athletes, its largest overseas Paralympics team ever, joining the ranks of some 4,400 athletes from a record 168 delegations.
Three years after finishing the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games with a bronze medal, Japan wheelchair rugby captain Yukinobu Ike is ready to lead his team to the top of the podium at Paris 2024. It took Japan wheelchair rugby captain Yukinobu Ike six months to watch recordings of his matches from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, and it took him another six months for him to put the semifinal defeat behind him. “I competed at Tokyo 2020, thinking this was the only opportunity for Japan to win the gold medal. I believed it was the only time I could ever win gold in my life,” said Ike, a two-time Paralympic bronze medallist. “It was very shocking to miss out on that medal.” Three years later, Ike is preparing to lead his team at the Paris 2024 Paralympics, where he wants to realise his dream winning a gold medal.
The Japanese delegation to the Paris Olympics, which begin later this month, will include four mental health experts to help create a better environment for Japanese athletes. It will be the first Summer Olympics where such experts, called “welfare officers,” will accompany Japanese athletes. Previously, mental health services for Japanese athletes were provided online. But Dohi said it is “easier for athletes to talk” to accompanying experts.
Roman Kashpur, one of two Ukrainians using a prosthetic leg who will participate in the March 3 event, said in an online interview that by running the race he wants to give injured Ukrainian soldiers the will to live again.
Para-athlete Natsumi Inouchi has won the Beppu Oita Marathon, winning the women’s visually impaired category, finishing at 3 hours, 14 minutes and 24 seconds.
Inouchi fell from a station platform in November last year, colliding with a train. She was unable to train for a month due to a right leg injury, and finished the Hofu Yomiuri Marathon in December in 3 hours and 25 minutes.
The “16th All Japan Challenged Aquathlon Kaike Tournament,” where people with disabilities take on swimming and running, was held on October 9th in Yonago City, Tottori Prefecture, which is considered the birthplace of triathlon in Japan. Approximately 80 people aged 6 to 78 from within and outside the prefecture worked hard to reach the goal with the help of approximately 290 volunteers.
With the theme of the “circle” that connects people through the tournament, the design features a hand used in sign language and cherry blossom petals as motifs, and will be widely used in PR for the tournament.
Japan’s Shingo Kunieda, considered one of the greatest wheelchair tennis players of all time, said Sunday he has hung up his racket.
The 38-year-old Kunieda, a winner of 28 Grand Slam titles and three Paralympic gold medals in the men’s singles, retired while at the top of the world rankings.
The first football stadium dedicated for people with disabilities in the prefecture will be built on the site of a factory being constructed by an industrial robot manufacturer in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka City.
Barrier Free Japan