Paris 2024 Paralympics | Para powerlifting: two legends return to the stage
The Paris 2024 Paralympics will feature as many as 180 powerlifters competing across 20 medal events, and in the last Paralympic Games in Tokyo, China topped the medal standings with seven gold medals. This year, two Paralympic veterans — one Mexican, the other Egyptian — aim to revisit past exploits and cement their reputations as legends of the powerlifting world.
The uncontested star of the women’s event is the Mexican lifter Amalia Pérez. At 51 years-old, Amalia will be competing in her seventh Paralympic Games in Paris.
Pérez has won four Paralympic golds and two silvers as well as multiple World titles during a career that began in Dubai back in 1998, but she shows no signs of slowing down: “From my first Paralympics at Sydney 2000 I have been waiting for God and my body to tell me when to stop, but that hasn’t come yet. So I'll keep going.”
On the men’s side, the man to beat is Sherif Osman. The Egyptian powerlifter has participated in four Summer Paralympic Games winning three gold medals and one silver. In the Beijing 2008 Games Osman broke the world record with a lift of 202.5 kg. He surpassed this weight with 205 kg at the 2010 World Championship, and again in Rio 2016 with a lift of 211 kg that brought him another gold medal.
After claiming silver in the men’s 59kg category in Tokyo, Sherif issued an ominous warning to his adversaries: “Paris 2024 will finally separate us, because I promise to win gold and bring a new world record.”
An evolving discipline
Para powerlifting has been included in the Paralympic Games since the 1984 edition held in New York. Initially the sport was named weightlifting, and only catered for male athletes with a spinal cord injury, but has progressively introduced other impairment groups since then.
There is one sport class in Para powerlifting — all eligible athletes have lower limbs or hips impairment — however, athletes compete in one of ten categories based on body weight for each gender. There is a fifty-fifty gender equality split in terms of athletes and medals
The Porte de La Chapelle Arena in the north of Paris will host the five days of Para powerlifting events from 4 to 8 September 2024. This 8,000-seat arena, that also boasts two state-of-the-art gymnasiums, is the only purpose-built venue of the Paris 2024 Olympics located within the Paris city limits. After the Games, it will become the home venue for the professional basketball team, Paris Basketball.
In addition to the Para powerlifting, the stadium will also host the Para badminton events.
Athletes to Watch in Para powerlifting
- Mariana D'Andrea (Brazil)
- David Degtyarev (Kazakhstan)
- Sherif Osman (Egypt)
- Mark Swan (Great Britain)
- Bonnie Bunyau Gustin (Malaysia)
- Abdelkareem Mohmmad Khattab (Jordan)
- Lingling Guo (China)
- Amalia Pérez (Mexico)
- Country to watch: Nigeria in which athletes won six of the 20 gold medals up for grabs at Rio