Six-time paralympic medallist swimmer Karolina Pelendritou might be Cyprus’ flagbearer on the Paralympic Video games’ opening ceremony, the Cyprus Paralymic Committee introduced on Tuesday.
Pelendritou might be competing at her sixth Paralympic video games this yr, having received medals at 4 of her earlier 5 competitions – one gold every in Athens in 2004, Beijing in 2008 and Tokyo in 2021, a silver in London in 2012 and two bronzes, in Beijing in 2008 and in Tokyo in 2021.
This time round, she might be competing within the S11 class 50-metre freestyle race, by which she received bronze in Tokyo and the SB11 class 100m breaststroke race, by which she received gold in Tokyo.
The opening ceremony will happen on August 28 and can, in keeping with the Worldwide Paralympic Committee, “open with a preferred parade on the enduring Champs-Elysées.”
On the finish of the parade, the vast majority of the ceremony will happen in Place de la Concorde, one among Paris’ iconic central squares.
Of the deliberate ceremony, its creative director Thomas Jolly stated, “from the Champs-Elysées to Place de la Concorde, I look ahead to creating this spectacle that can remodel the guts of Paris, with performances which have by no means been seen earlier than.”
Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet concurred, saying the opening ceremony will spotlight paralympians’ achievements.
“To make sure that the highlight is firmly on the achievements of the paralympic athletes, the values that they embody and the feelings that they encourage in us, Paris 2024 needed to supply them a groundbreaking showcase by organising the primary Paralympic Video games opening ceremony exterior the confines of a stadium,” he stated.
Cyprus will ship a complete of three athletes to the video games. Alongside Pelendritou, weightlifter Maria Markou is about to seem at her second Paralympic Video games and lengthy jumper Viktoras Pentaras will make his paralympic debut.
The nation has received a complete of eight paralympic medals in its historical past, with sprinter Antonis Aresti’s two silver medals in Beijing in 2008 including to Pelendritou’s successes.
