The International Paralympic Committee said Thursday it will stay the course in preparations for this summer’s Tokyo Games despite mounting concerns over the spread of coronavirus in Japan.
The event, originally scheduled as the Japan Para Championships Boccia and set to start on Friday at Ariake Gymnastics Centre, was postponed on Feb. 20. Instead, a smaller number of domestic athletes were expected to participate in a test.
The eastern Japan city of Chiba is aiming to become a hub for wheelchair sports, capitalizing on the Tokyo Paralympic Games this summer.
The first flames of the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics will be lit in over 140 Japanese municipalities across 28 prefectures on Aug. 13 in the run-up to the torch relay, the organizing committee said Thursday.
In the previous 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Paralympics, the JPC targeted 10 gold medals for Japanese athletes but ended up failing to win any. It was the first time ever for Japan to win no gold at a Summer Paralympic Games.
Wheelchair basketball’s governing body must reassess the eligibility of 50 to 75 players by late May or face removal of the sport from the Tokyo Games, an International Paralympic Committee official said Wednesday.
“We hope to have the collaboration and support from all our national federations as we do everything possible to serve our wheelchair basketball community and make sure wheelchair basketball secures it place in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and future Paralympic Games,” Mehrens said on the IWBF website.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has warned the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) that the removal of wheelchair basketball from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games is one of the options it could pursue unless the federation implements an IPC approved action plan to improve athlete classification by 29 May 2020.
As Tokyo prepares to host its second games after 56 years, some of the former volunteers are hoping to make another impact. Meanwhile, their experience has inspired the younger generation to take a leading role as the games approach.
The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) annouced on Wednesday 15th January that applications for participation in the second lottery for sales of Paralympic Games tickets will be accepted from residents of Japan during the period of 15 – 29 January 2020.
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