Person involved with the Tokyo Paralympics hospitalized with COVID-19 and Afghan Paralympians evacuated are safe, IPC says
Takayuki Suzuki won a gold medal in the men’s 100-meter freestyle S4, a class for swimmers with physical impairments, in the Tokyo Paralympics on Thursday, giving Japan its first gold at the ongoing Tokyo Games.
Suzuki is also the first Japanese Paralympian to bag gold since the 2012 London Games.
A person from overseas linked with the Paralympics, but not an athlete, has been hospitalized after testing positive on Monday for the coronavirus. The patient is not displaying severe symptoms, committee spokesman Masanori Takaya said.
Afghanistan’s two Paralympic athletes have been safely evacuated from the country, the International Paralympic Committee said Wednesday, declining to specify their destination. The two taekwondo athletes, Zakia Khudadadi and Hossain Rasouli, were originally due to represent their country at the Tokyo Paralympics.
Japan started a special program Wednesday to allow schoolchildren to view Tokyo Paralympic events at venues as an exception to the policy of holding the Games without spectators.
TOKYO – Miyuki Yamada won the host nation’s first medal of the Tokyo Paralympics on Wednesday, in the process becoming the youngest Japanese to reach the podium in the history of the games at just 14 years of age.
The 1964 Tokyo Paralympic Games offered Japanese people with disabilities a glimpse of an inclusive world, with one athlete saying that the event “opened a window in life.”
The Japan team’s most recent Paralympic experience was quite underwhelming, not because there was a disappointing lack of medals but because of the 24 totaled in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, none were gold.
“We can’t call the Tokyo Games successful unless the Paralympics end in success,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said. “We aim to host the event from Tuesday safely and securely and use its legacy for the development of a sustainable city,” she added.
WeThe15 is a global movement, which was founded by a coalition of organisations from sport, human rights, policy, communications, business, arts and entertainment, uniting to change attitudes and create more opportunities for persons with disabilities, as well as improve mobility and accessibility.
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