Original title: 11 disabled athletes from Yunnan compete for their country at the Paris Paralympics
On the afternoon of August 16, the Chinese sports delegation for the 17th Paris Paralympic Games was established in Beijing. A total of 16 people from Yunnan were selected, including 11 athletes, 3 coaches, 1 team leader and 1 staff member.
The Paralympic Games will be held in Paris, France from August 28 to September 8, 2024. There will be 22 major events and 549 minor events. There will be 4,400 athletes from about 160 countries and regions participating. The total number of the Chinese sports delegation is 516, including 284 athletes (including 126 male athletes and 158 female athletes), and 232 coaches, staff and competition support personnel. The delegation will participate in 19 major events and 302 minor events, including archery, track and field, badminton, boccia, canoeing, cycling, blind football, blind goalball, blind judo, weightlifting, rowing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair fencing, and wheelchair tennis. This is the 11th time that my country has sent a delegation to participate in the Summer Paralympic Games.
In this Paralympic Games, a total of 11 athletes from Yunnan Province were selected for the Chinese delegation in four major events, including swimming, canoeing, goalball and blind football. Gao Lisheng, member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice Chairman of the Yunnan Disabled Persons’ Federation, serves as the leader of the goalball team. Yang Chunhong is the coach of the women’s goalball team. Zhang Honghu and Liu Tao, famous disabled swimming coaches in Yunnan Province, have been selected for the coaching lineup of the national disabled swimming team. Hu Jianping, chief of the Publicity and Art Section of the Yunnan Disabled Persons’ Sports Guidance Center, will travel with the team as a staff member of the swimming team.
The 11 disabled athletes selected for the national team in Yunnan this time show the characteristics of a combination of old and new. Among them, four athletes, Jin Xiaoqin, Zheng Tingting, Lu Weiyuan and Zou Liankang, were selected for swimming. Zheng Tingting, a young athlete born in the 2000s, is a new disabled swimming star that has emerged in our province in recent years. In the Hangzhou Asian Para Games, she won the S8 women’s 400m freestyle and 100m backstroke championships. Jin Xiaoqin, Lu Weiyuan and Zou Liankang are all “veterans” who have competed in international and domestic competitions. Zou Liankang is a “three-time veteran” of the Paralympics. The three of them have performed well in the Hangzhou Asian Para Games and deserve to be selected for the Paris Paralympics. Canoeing, as a new advantage project in our province, became famous throughout the country in the 11th National Paralympic Games and the 8th Special Olympics. This time, the 39-year-old Lincang female general Zhong Yongyuan joined hands with the young player Zeng Yi to compete in Paris. This is also the first time that disabled athletes from our province have participated in the Olympic canoeing event.
In the group events, a total of 5 Yunnan athletes were selected, and the combination of old and new players made the competition more interesting. Veteran Zhang Xiling, who led the Chinese team to win the women’s blind goalball championship at the Hangzhou Asian Para Games, and Liu Meng, a blind football player who has represented the country in international competitions many times, led the team. In the Hangzhou Asian Para Games blind football gold medal match, young player Li Haifu, who helped the Chinese team beat the Iranian team on penalties, was also successfully selected this time. He and Liu Meng will become the strongest striker of the Chinese blind football team.
appendix:
List of Yunnan members selected for the 17th Paralympic Games Chinese sports delegation
1. Swimming
Staff: Hu Jianping
Coaches: Zhang Honghu, Liu Tao
Female athletes: Jin Xiaoqin, Zheng Tingting, Lu Weiyuan
Male athlete: Zou Liankang
2. Canoeing
Female athlete: Zhong Yongyuan
Male athlete: Pu Yi
3. Goalball
Team Leader: Gao Lisheng
Women’s team coach: Yang Chunhong
Female athletes: Wang Chunhua, Zhang Xiling
Male athlete: Wang Jinhao
4. Blind Football Project
Male athletes: Liu Meng, Li Haifu
Yunnan Daily-Yunnan News Reporter: Lou Ying
Editor: Duan Fengyuan (Lou Ying)
Editor in charge: Cloud News
