paralympics

United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee announces 2024 Paralympic Team

Team USA has an even split of 110 men and 110 women, plus five guides.

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Here’s everything you need to know about the 2024 Paris Paralympics.

The U.S. Paralympic athlete roster for the Paris Games includes an even split of 110 men and 110 women, plus five guides.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced the full team before the Opening Ceremony along the Champs-Élysées and at the Place de la Concorde. It will be the first Paralympic Opening Ceremony to ever occur outside of a stadium.

Competition will take place from Aug. 29-Sept. 8 across 549 medal events and 22 sports.

Events will be held at famous sites including the Grand Palais (wheelchair fencing and taekwondo), the Champ de Mars Arena (judo and wheelchair rugby), the Esplanade des Invalides (archery), a stadium next to the Eiffel Tower (blind soccer), the Château de Versailles (equestrian) and Roland Garros (wheelchair tennis).

The U.S. team includes swimmer Jessica Long, who ranks second in American history with 29 medals and 16 gold medals behind Trischa Zorn. Long, who made her Paralympic debut in 2004 at age 12, is going to her sixth Games.

Three Americans are set to compete in their seventh Games: Oksana Masters, Tatyana McFadden and Tahl Leibovitz.

Masters, 35, made her Paralympic debut in 2012 and has competed at every Summer and Winter Games since. In 2022, she broke the U.S. record for career Winter Paralympic medals with her 14th. In 2021, she won two gold medals in Para cycling at the Tokyo Games.

McFadden, 35, is a record 24-time World Marathon Major winner and a 20-time Paralympic medalist. Her 19 medals in track and field alone are one shy of the U.S. record in that sport held by Bart Dodson.

Leibovitz, a 49-year-old table tennis player, made his Paralympic debut at the 1996 Atlanta Games, where he won singles gold.

The U.S. is also the two-time defending Paralympic champion in the team sports of men's wheelchair basketball and women's sitting volleyball.

At the Tokyo Games, the U.S. won the fourth-most total medals (104) and third-most gold medals (37), while China topped both standings (207, 96) for a fifth consecutive Summer Games.

Sarah Adam, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, is attempting to become the first woman to ever represent Team USA at a Paralympics in wheelchair rugby, a sport so violent it is nicknamed “murderball.”

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