PARIS (AP) — Being the follow-up act to the Paris Olympics is no easy task, but the Paralympic Games that begin Wednesday promise to offer up their own fair share of memorable sporting moments.
This is an event that highlights the human ability to overcome hardships and disabilities, so the word “insurmountable” isn’t one you’re likely to hear in Paris over the next two weeks as around 4,400 athletes with a wide range of life-impacting impairments compete for medals in 549 events across 22 sports.
“If it seems impossible, then it can be done!” Italian fencer Bebe Vio says on her website.
She will be vying for her third consecutive gold medal in wheelchair fencing. After contracting meningitis as a child, doctors amputated both her forearms and both her legs at the knees to save her life.
Here’s a look at some of the other events that athletes will be competing in at the Paralympics and how competitors are categorized based on their disability or impairment.