On Wednesday evening, the Summer Paralympic Games will be officially opened in Paris, where Lithuania will be represented by nine athletes.
The Lithuanian delegation in Paris Paralympic games consists of field athletes Andrius Skuja, Aušra Garunkšnytė, Donatas Dundzys, Oksana Dobrovolskaja, and Eivydė Vainauskaitė, swimmers Edgaras Matakas and Gabrielė Čepavičiūtė, judo wrestler Osvaldas Bareikis, and shooter Raimeda Bučinskytė.
The Lithuanian flag will be carried at the opening ceremony by national team captain Dundzys, as well as Čepavičiūtė.
Lithuania was represented by 11 Paralympians at the Tokyo Paralympic Games, which took place in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In total, Lithuanian Paralympic athletes won three bronze medals in Tokyo. Among the bronze medal winners was swimmer Matakas, who finished third in the final of the 50 m freestyle, as well as judo wrestler Bareikis.
The men’s goalball team won the third bronze medal for Lithuania in Tokyo Paralympic Games. This was the fourth time the team won Paralympic medals. Previously, it won silver twice in Sydney in 2000 and Beijing in 2008, as well as gold in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
However, the Lithuanian team’s winning streak in goalball will not continue in Paris, as it did not qualify for this year’s Paralympic Games.
A total of 4,400 Paralympians representing 168 countries will take part in the Paris Paralympic Games.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) confirmed on Monday that 88 Russian and eight Belarusian athletes will compete in Paris under a neutral flag. Athletes from these countries had to go through a double screening process to qualify for the Paralympics.
A third-party agency hired by the IPC was tasked with verifying that potential Paralympic athletes were not actively supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine and were not affiliated with their countries’ militaries.
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