The International Paralympic
Committee (IPC) confirmed the medal events and athlete quotas for the LA28
Paralympic Games on Tuesday (3 June).
With regards to the 22 sports that
were included by the IPC Governing Board in the initial sport programme for
LA28 in January 2023, there will be 552 medal events and a total of 4,400
athlete quota places – the same number of quota places as for Paris 2024 and
Tokyo 2020.
Across the 22 sports, there will be
243 medal events for female athletes (44 per cent), eight more than for Paris
2024, while the number of medal events for male athletes has been reduced by
eight to 263 (48 per cent). The number of open or mixed gender medal events has
increased by three to 46 (eight per cent).
Of the 4,400 athlete quota places
available across the 22 sports initially included, 1,967 are for female Para
athletes (45 per cent), 107 more than for Paris 2024. There will be 2,228 quota
slots for male Para athletes (51 per cent), 27 more than Paris 2024, and 205
gender-free slots (five per cent), a reduction of 134 places.
For the second successive Paralympic
Games, the men’s and women’s medal events in goalball, sitting volleyball and
wheelchair basketball will each feature eight teams. Eight teams will also
contest the blind football and wheelchair rugby competitions.
Para climbing, a sport proposed by
the Organising Committee and approved by the IPC Governing Board to make its
Paralympic debut at LA28, will have eight medal events (four male and four
female) and have a maximum of 10 athletes contesting each medal event.
With Para climbing’s inclusion in
LA28 as a 23rd sport, a record 17 sports will have gender parity in terms of
their medal event programmes. Sixteen sports will offer an equal number of
quota places to male and female athletes, the most ever, with six new sports
achieving this compared to Paris 2024.
The full list of medal events and
athlete quotas can be found here
Andrew Parsons, IPC President, said:
“Finalising the medal event programme and athlete quotas for a Paralympic Games
is always a complex exercise and LA28 was no different. We believe the final
medal event programme will ensure world class sporting action across all 23
sports, drive efficiencies for the organisers, and provide clarity for National
Paralympic Committees to finalise their preparations and performance programmes
for LA28.
“We are grateful to all the
International Federations who collaborated on this process. With the addition
of Para climbing, the result is not just the largest medal event programme and
most-gender balanced athlete quota in the history of the Paralympic Games, but
one that also represents the pinnacle of Para sport to serve as the core for
transformational Games.”
The International Federations of the
22 sports included on the programme initially approved by the IPC in January
2023 put forward proposals to include a total of 598 medal events in the LA28
Paralympic Games, with 13 International Federations looking to increase their
respective number of medal events compared to Paris 2024. The 22 International
Federations also requested a total of 4,811 athlete quota places, 411 places
more than the maximum number allowed to compete at a Paralympic Games.
The LA28 Paralympic Games will take
place between 15-27 August 2028.
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