The Paralympic Games in Paris will be opened today with a ceremony that will start at 21:00 Bulgarian time. 4,400 disabled athletes in 22 sports will compete for 549 medals over 11 days in the French capital. The competition will continue until September 8.
The opening ceremony will take place tonight at the historic Place de la Concorde, at the start of the Champs Elysées, which hosted the skateboarding, break and 3x3 basketball events during the Olympics. "We are in the center of the city. The symbolism behind it is like the city of Paris is giving our athletes a huge hug", International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons told The Associated Press.
Of the 22 Paralympic sports, only two do not have an Olympic equivalent – goalball and bocce. In goalball, teams of partially sighted or blind people take turns rolling a ball with bells toward the opposing goal while players from the other team act as goalies. In bocce, players throw or roll leather balls as close as possible to a small ball called a jack.
Compared to the previous Paralympics in Tokyo three years ago, 10 new events have been added to this one in Paris to provide women and those with high support needs more opportunities. About 2 million of the 2.5 million tickets have been sold for the various sports and events - this will be the second largest number after that of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
Bulgaria will be represented by three competitors. All three are track and field athletes, including Rio 2016 Olympic champion Rujdi Rujdi. He will compete for a medal in the shot put event in the F55 category. This means that the athlete in question has full arm function and partial torso function, but no leg function. Hristiyan Stoyanov, silver medalist from Tokyo, will run 1500 m in category T46 - athletes with an amputated arm. In the discus throw, the silver medalist from Tokyo 2008 and London 2012 Stella Eneva will return. Her category is F57 (for people with impaired limbs competing in a seated position). Eneva returns after a nine-year absence due to a doping conviction. Bulgaria's athletes will fight for medals within two days - August 30 and 31, respectively Friday and Saturday.
Bulgaria's first participation in the Paralympic Games dates back to Seoul 1988. To date, we have a total of 17 medals - 5 gold, 9 silver and 3 bronze awards. Of them, the only one that is not in athletics is that of Polina Jurova - silver in swimming in Atlanta in 1996.
The first day of the competition is on Thursday. Medal distribution will be in Para Taekwondo, Para Table Tennis, Para Swimming and Para Track Cycling. | BGNES
