ieExplains: Everything you need to know about the Paralympic Games

More than 4,400 athletes from 154 countries are taking part in this year's Paralympic Games

Ireland is sending 35 athletes to the games to compete across nine sports. Picture: Paralympics Ireland

After a record medal haul at the Olympics earlier in the summer, Ireland’s attention now turns to the Paralympic Games

Ireland’s squad left Dublin Airport earlier this month to travel to Lisbon for a training camp ahead of the beginning of the Paralympics in Paris.

Here’s everything you need to know about the event.

When do the Paralympic Games take place?

The Summer Paralympic Games, also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, will take place in Paris from Wednesday, August 28, to Sunday, September 8.

How many athletes are competing?

One of the gold medals which athletes will compete for during the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. Picture: Bertrand Guy/AFP via Getty Images

More than 4,400 athletes from 154 countries are taking part in the games. 

Great Britain, France, the US, China, and Japan boast the largest squads in terms of athletes, while eight nations — American Samoa, Chad, Guam, Kiribati, Kosovo, Palau, South Sudan and Tuvalu — are sending athletes to the competition for the first time. 

How many sports and events will feature?

Per the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) website, the 2024 games will see some 549 events take place across 22 different sports, including both individual and team sports.

The sports included in this year’s games are:

• Para archery 
• Para athletics 
• Para badminton 
• Blind football 
• Boccia 
• Para Canoe 
• Para Cycling 
• Para Equestrian 
• Goalball 
• Para Judo 
• Para Powerlifting 
• Para Rowing 
• Shooting Para Sport 
• Sitting Volleyball 
• Para Swimming 
• Para Table Tennis
• Para Taekwondo 
• Para Triathlon 
• Wheelchair Basketball 
• Wheelchair Fencing 
• Wheelchair Rugby 
• Wheelchair Tennis 

The para athletics will be the largest sport at the games, with up to 1,069 athletes competing across 164 medal events.

How many Irish athletes are taking part?

Ireland is sending 35 athletes to the games to compete across nine sports.

They are:

- Para Archery 

• Kerrie Leonard 

- Para Athletics 

• Orla Comerford 
• Shauna Bocquet
• Mary Fitzgerald 
• Aaron Shorten 
• Greta Streimikyte 

- Para Cycling

• Katie-George Dunlevy 
• Martin Gordon
• Ronan Grimes 
• Josephine Healion 
• Linda Kelly 
• Mitchell Mclaughlin
• Eve McCrystal 
• Eoin Mullen 
• Richael Timothy
• Damien Vereker

- Para Equestrian 

• Kate Kerr Horan
• Jessica McKenna
• Michael Murphy
• Sarah Slattery

- Para Powerlifting 

• Britney Arendse

- Para Rowing

• Katie O’Brien
• Tiarnán O’Donnell

- Para Swimming

•  Dearbhaile Brady
• Ellen Keane
• Barry McClements
• Deaten Registe
• Róisín Ni Riain
• Nicole Turner

- Para Table Tennis 

• Colin Judge

- Para Triathlon 

• Cassie Cava
• Chloe MacCombe
• Catherine Sands
• Judith MacCombe
• Eimear Nicolls

What about Ireland's medal prospects?

Ireland took home a total of seven medals at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, which were delayed until 2021 due to the covid-19 pandemic — four golds, two silvers, and one bronze.

With more athletes competing this time around than in Tokyo, there is hope to improve upon that tally.

Among the squad is Ireland’s most decorated female Paralympian — cyclist Katie-George Dunlevy.

Ireland's Katie-George Dunlevy. Picture: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Dunlevy — who suffers from a visual impairment — and her pilot Eve McCrystal won a gold and a silver at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio, and two golds and a silver in Tokyo.

Superstar swimmer Ellen Keane will also compete for Ireland in her fifth consecutive Paralympics. The Clontarf woman won a bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke (SB8) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio and gold at the same event in Tokyo.

Having taken home five medals — two of them gold — at the European Para Swimming Championships in Portugal in April, Limerick swimmer Róisín Ní Riain is another strong medal hopeful.

With several other athletes including Chloe MacCombe, Catherine Sands, Cassie Cava, Nicole Turner, Colin Judge, and Deaten Registe, having also won medals at various World, European and other high-profile competitions over the past year or so, Team Ireland looks set to continue their streak of punching far above their weight in terms of medals at the Paralympics.

How many spectators are expected?

The Paralympics is the third-largest sporting event in the world measured by tickets, behind only the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup. 

The IPC is predicting that 3.4 million spectators will attend the Paris games. If this prediction holds true, it would break the 2.7 million record for ticket sales set during the London games in 2012.

An estimated cumulative TV audience of nearly 4.25 billion people watched the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, and organisers believe this record may also be broken this year. 

Where can I watch the Paralympic Games?

Paris 2024 will be the first time that all Paralympic Games sports will be filmed and broadcast live around the world. 

Here in Ireland, RTÉ will be broadcasting over 100 hours of coverage of the Paralympics across TV during the competition's 12 days, with a further 400 hours of coverage being broadcast on RTÉ Radio, RTÉ News, RTÉ Online and the RTÉ Player.