What to expect, athletes to watch, and how to see the Games in Hong Kong
Updated August 29: The Tokyo Paralympics kicked off in a celebratory mood with the Opening Ceremony on Tuesday. Various teams from all over the globe joined the opening ceremony, including three Hong Kong athletes, archer Ngai Ka-chuen and flag bearers runner Yam Kwok-fan and swimmer Hui Ka-chun.
On day 4 of the Games, table tennis athlete Wong Ting-ting wins the first medal for Hong Kong at Tokyo Paralympics. The 17-year-old Paralympian bagged a bronze medal after winning the first of a best-of-five match against the world's number one, Elena Prokofeva. Elsewhere, 36-year-old boccia athlete Leung Yuk-wing got off to a good start beating Sergey Safin of the Russian Paralympic Committee during the opener on Saturday. Don't miss the schedule this week as the boccia competition starts to heat up.
This year marks the 16th Summer Paralympic Games, and it will be the second time Tokyo is hosting the Games since 1964. Hong Kong is sending 64 delegation members to Tokyo, including 24 athletes, 40 coaches, National Paralympic Committee representatives, and other delegation officials. The SAR has recorded a total of 126 medals for the Paralympics – 40 gold, 37 silver and 49 bronze – since the city first competed in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1972. In the 2016 Rio Paralympics, Hong Kong sent 24 athletes and brought home two golds, two silvers, and two bronze medals. Most of our decorated Paralympians are heading back to Tokyo, and we're excited to watch them compete.
Read below for a guide on what to expect and how to watch the Games in Hong Kong. Be sure to bookmark this page. We will update it regularly during the course of the Games.
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Watch this space for Hong Kong athlete's competition schedules.
For event competition highlights, bookmark these dates:
Opening Ceremony: August 24
Closing ceremony: September 5
Archery: August 27 to September 4
Athletics: August 27 to September 5
Boccia: August 28 to September 4
Equestrian: August 25 to 30
Swimming: August 25 to September 3
Table tennis: August 25 to September 3
Wheelchair fencing: August 25 to 29
Badminton: September 1 to 5
The Paralympic Games is a multi-sport competition for athletes with disabilities. The word 'Paralympic' was derived from the Greek preposition "para" (beside or alongside) and the word 'Olympic'. According to the International Paralympic Committee, Paralympics are the 'parallel' Games to the Olympics. They exist side-by-side but are represented by two different governing bodies.
The first Paralympic Games was held in Rome in 1960, and 400 athletes from 23 countries competed in eight sporting events. This year, the Games will feature 539 events across 22 different sports which will include archery, athletics, cycling, canoe sprint, rowing, shooting, sitting volleyball, swimming, table tennis, triathlon, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair fencing, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair tennis, among others.
Badminton and taekwondo will be debuting in the 2020 Paralympics. Only two sports in the Paralympic programme do not have an Olympic counterpart, and these are boccia – a game similar to lawn bowls where the players throw balls and land it as close as possible to a marker ball called the Jack – and goalball – first introduced in 1946 to rehabilitate World War II veterans, the sport is kind of like soccer but played by athletes with visual impairments where a ball with bells inside is thrown and rolled on the floor until it crosses the goal line of the opposing team.
All sporting events will have a classification system that determines the athlete's eligibility to compete according to their limitations. To learn and understand more about the classification, visit this link.
The Games will showcase a cute and friendly Paralympic mascot called Someity inspired by cherry blossoms.
The Paralympic medals feature a traditional Japanese fan motif. They are made from recycled metal – sourced from electronics – and are specially designed for the visually impaired (the first time this provision has been created in Paralympic history), showcasing braille letters spelling out 'Tokyo 2020' and indentations to mark if it is gold, silver, or bronze.
Days ahead of the Games' opening, flames for the Paralympics were ignited in municipalities in all of Japan's 47 prefectures and were merged into one in Tokyo on August 20. Initially, the Paralympic Torch Relay was set to take place on public roads in Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama, and Shizuoka, but most segments were moved behind closed doors amid Covid-19 worries.
Hong Kong will be represented by 24 athletes competing for eight sports – badminton, boccia, archery, equestrian, swimming, table tennis, athletics, and wheelchair fencing.
Eyes are on wheelchair fencing athlete Alison Yu Chiu-yee (one of Hong Kong's most decorated Paralympians who has eleven medals under her belt, including seven gold, three silver, and a bronze), two-time Laureus World Sports Award nominee boccia player Leung Yuk-wing (with a double gold medal from 2004 Athens Paralympics, four gold medals from the 2014 World Championships and Asian Para Games, silver from the 2018 Beijing Games, and gold medal in 2016 Rio Paralympics), boccia player Ho Yuen-kei, (Asia's best female boccia player and the world's second-best in her category), archer Ngai Ka-chuen, equestrian Natasha Tse Pui-ting, sprinter Yam Kwok-fan (bronze medalist, 2018 Asian Para Games), swimmer Kelvin Tang Wai-lok (gold medalist, 2016 Rio Paralympics), table tennis player Ng Mui-wui (bronze medalist, 2016 Rio Paralympics), and badminton players Daniel Chan Ho-yuen (silver medalist, 2019 World Para Championships, world's number 2 in the men's singles wheelchair) and Chu Man-kai (champion in the 2018 Asian Para Games and 2019 World Para Championships).
Sports fans in Hong Kong can catch the Paralympics for free through six local television stations – HK Open TV (Fantastic Television Limited), Hong Kong Cable Television Limited (i-Cable), PCCW Media Limited (NowTV), Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB), Viu TV (HK Television Entertainment Company), and Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), which was previously excluded from broadcasting the Olympics. Check out the stations' websites and follow them on social media for the latest news and updates on broadcast schedules and more.
Visit the official Tokyo Games website for the full competition schedules and more information on events.
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