The 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris begin on Wednesday with the Opening Ceremony. Canada’s flag bearers are wheelchair basketball player Patrick Anderson of Edmonton, Alberta, and Paralympic swimmer Katarina Roxon of Kippens, Newfoundland.
Anderson has won three Paralympic gold medals in the past, winning at the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games, the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games and the 2012 London Paralympic Games. Roxon won the gold medal in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
A total of 126 Paralympics participants are taking part for Canada. The Canadians are represented in the team competitions goalball (women), sitting volleyball (women), wheelchair basketball (women and men) and wheelchair rugby (women). Team Canada also sends athletes in the sports of athletics, swimming, archery, badminton, bocce, cycling, horse riding, judo, paracanoeing, paratriathlon, rowing, table tennis, wheelchair fencing and wheelchair tennis.
At the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in 2021, Canada won 21 medals, including five gold medalists. The gold medalists were swimmer Aurelie Rivard of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec (women’s 100m freestyle and women’s 400m freestyle), swimmer Danielle Dorris of Fredericton, New Brunswick (women’s 50m butterfly), shot putter Greg Stewart of Victoria, British Columbia, and Nathan Riech (men’s 1500m). Rivard, Dorris, Stewart and Riech are all returning to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
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