Every four years, some of the world’s best disabled athletes compete in 23 spectacular sporting events at the Paralympic Games! These Paralympic athletes are raring to go, so come on gang, let’s meet some of the youngest sporting superstars

PSSSSSST!

Don’t miss the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, running from the 24th of August to the 5th of September!

Ellie Robinson

Ellie smiles at the camera, holding up her shiny gold medal

Aged just 19, awesome Ellie from Team GB won gold and bronze at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio, for her sport of S6 classification swimming. After this awesome achievement, Ellie was awarded an MBE by the Queen – and won BBC’s Young Sports Personality of the Year, too! She’s going for glory again in Tokyo this year – yay!

FUN FACT!

Paralympic stars have a range of disabilities, and so to make it fair, the athletes are given different ‘classifications’ for their sports. This allows people with a similar level of impairment to compete against one another. Smart!

Karé Adenegan

paralympic athlete karé looks focused as she sits in her racing wheelchair, which has two wheels beneath her and one out in front.

20-year-old wheelchair racer Karé has cerebral palsy, a condition that affects movement and coordination. She made her Paralympic debut in 2016, speeding off with three medals for Team GB! This year she’s hoping to beat her team-mate ‘Hurricane’ Hannah Cockcroft (who has five Paralympic gold medals) in their sport of T34 100m and 800m. Their speedy rivalry in Tokyo is going to be VERY exciting to watch!

Cody Everson

paralympic athlete cody wheels away from an opponent, the ball clasped in his lap

When competitive Cody was paralysed aged 15 by a neck injury he received while playing rugby, he decided that being in a wheelchair wasn’t going to stop him keeping up with the game! Despite being just 23 years old, Cody is now co-captain of the New Zealand ‘Wheel Blacks’ Paralympic rugby team. They’re hoping to win Team NZ a shiny gold medal at the Games this year. Good luck, Cody!

FUN FACT!

Wheelchair rugby is quite different from the rugby played at the Olympics – it includes elements of many other sports, including basketball and ice hockey, and is played in mixed teams of four!

Megan Shackleton

Megan looks focused as she stretches to hit a small table tennis ball with her paddle

After an accident aged nine left her in a wheelchair, sports-mad Megan tried wheelchair basketball and won several national swimming medals before setting her heart on table tennis! This 22-year-old Paralympic athlete is heading to Tokyo from Todmorden in northern England for her Paralympic debut. Go Megan!

FUN FACT!

The ‘para’ in ‘Paralympic Games’ means parallel! The Games were given this name to show that the competition for disabled athletes worked side-by-side with the more established Olympic Games. Great!

Dylan Littlehales

paralympic athlete dylan sits in his canoe on a lake. he slaps palms with a teammate and looks pleased.

22-year-old Dylan has been a rising star in para-canoe since his Olympic debut in Rio 2016! Now, he’s returning to Team Australia’s list of Paralympic athletes in the hope of besting the sixth place he received last time. Can he splash past the opposition and into a top spot? We hope so – good luck Dylan!

FUN FACT!

Originally, only wheelchair athletes competed in the Paralympic Games (or Stoke Mandeville Games for wheelchair athletes, as they were known then!). However, in 1976 the Games were expanded to include athletes with a much wider range of impairments. Yay!

Thomas Young

paralympic athletes thomas sprints forwards along a red track

Team GB’s Thomas was born with a rare genetic condition which affects his balance and coordination, but he didn’t realise he could compete as a Paralympic athlete until three years ago! Since then, the 21-year-old sprinter has raced into the record books, winning gold at the European Championships in June for the T38 100m and T38 200m. Wow!

Nicole Turner

Nicole swims front crawl

Despite being the youngest member of Team Ireland at the 2016 Paralympics, Nicole made the final in all five of her swimming events. That’s pretty remarkable for a 14-year-old! Fast forward five years and 19-year-old Nicole, who has a form of dwarfism, is aiming to reach the finals again in Tokyo. Hopefully this time she’ll head home with a medal!

FUN FACT!

Swimmer Trischa Zorn from the USA has won the most medals of any Paralympic athlete. She’s grabbed a whopping 55 medals, including 41 golds!

Image credits: Megan Shackleton ⓒ British Para Table Tennis, all other images ⓒ Getty Images UK.

What do you think of these awesome Paralympic athletes? Let us know in the comments below!

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COMMENTS

  • red panda

    hooray! go paralympics =D

  • sifujoik

    helpful

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    WOW! Their so amazing!

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    GOOD

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    That's amazing!

  • Penlope

    Nothing is impossible!

  • Penlope

    I've never seen such fatastic facts!

  • Tara

    This is so inspirational!

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  • wow! these people are super talented!

  • milla

    this is amazing

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    WOW so cool

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  • Jahnavi

    cool facts

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  • I watch the Paralympics every year and I still did't know some of this infomation!

  • Ginny

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  • chloe

  • A bear

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    Wow

  • Gia

    OMG COOL

  • Antonella

    Wow, such amazing facts .

  • odtui

    I love it so much

  • Jojo

    All of them must have tryed very hard! my favorite sport to watch online at the paralympics/olympics is swimming. preferedly 50 meteres freestyle.

  • Ella

    I love the paralympics and the olympics!

  • So inspirational!

  • JAX !

    i am a big fan of olypiks

  • Owen

    Cool

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    my name is muffin and i like doing sports.

  • bbg

    loved it

  • Michika

    Wow

  • Wow

  • Hannah Gilling

    I met Haanah Taunton and got to see her bronze medal from the 1500m. We met her at the Taunton Athletic Club where she trains and got a great picture. She is a great inspiration to me!

  • Cool

  • Camilla and gabe

  • Starbluehat666

    Wow that is sooooo cool!!!

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  • Esha

  • Kate

    Nice

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    so so so cooooooool!!!!

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  • Ted

    Cool

  • Lucas

  • MIMI

    SO COOL

  • Mila

    SO COOL

  • Clara

    I think that these Paralympians are extremely inspirational! I really admire their fighting spirit.

  • excellent

    good

  • cam

  • Charli

    Love it

  • Matilda

    I love them all.

  • Daisy

    I never knew the word 'para' in Paralympics meant parallel. It was so fun to learn about the disableled athletes.

  • thomas shiny

    Nice!

  • staci

  • admin

  • admin

  • Peppermintpuppy64

  • Peppermintpuppy64

  • hgo2585

    nice

  • Cody Everson

  • aarush

    It is cool that the Paralympians do so much

  • emily

    cool

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    hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

  • EB

    cool

  • me

    these guys are awesome I want to be like them one day

  • me

  • hi

  • AMAZING

  • maffy

  • Elephant.........................

    This is so awesome i love watching olympics and paralympics all the time!! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

  • Chryssa

    I like the way Nicole swim

  • Chryssa

  • anonymous

    wow go New Zealand.

  • Severus

    wow amazing

  • Aranya

    These guys are so good and they work really hard!

  • Alicia

    Go Australia

  • wow

  • macy

    So cool

  • Aranya

    i always love watch the olympics and i didn't no there was something called as Paralympics

  • Charlotte

    I love watching the Olympics its so much fun. I wish that dance was in the Olympics.

  • Sarah Rangwala

    I did not Know that so many people can compete in the Olympics very young ages.

  • jad43350

    so cool

  • elena

    cool

  • Ian

    Wow! So many medals

  • Cool

    Cool

  • banana

    super

  • Theo.Pearson

    i never knew any of that

  • - anonymous

    These guys are legendary and they work so hard! There are so many more hard working Paralympians and they are all incredible!

  • Savannah

    This is amazing

  • Gabriela Sophia

    That people are heroes!

  • I did not Know that so many people can compete in the Olympics very young ages.

  • dovey13

    Super cool and I love the swimer

  • dovey13

    cool!

  • Person

    I love this website so educational

  • Izzy

  • Jason

    Their amazing PEOPLE

  • very awesome and brave!!!!

  • Kawhia

    COOL

  • Lunar

    Cool

  • Lily

    Oh my gosh!they are so awesome!

  • cool

  • Zali Adelaide Doube

    Okay thanks for the update thanks for the info.

  • Texie

    Epic

  • Jaxon

    Very cool

  • hi

    Cool

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    c o o l

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    Cool

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    very cool to know

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  • Bayswater

    wow

  • James

    Hi

  • Djbluewolffxt

    Very educationol

  • izzy

    very asome

  • hi

  • person

    That is so inspiring

  • Hello random person

    This is amazing. They just never give up even when they want to.

  • Arturo

  • Arturo

  • Nicolas

  • Eddy

  • Eddy

  • L e t ' s t a k e a c t i o n !

  • Name

    This is so cool it teach to much things that are like an influence to as.

  • Aiden

    Winners never quit and quitters never win! =) just remember great things take a lot of effort to make true ✨

  • Libby

    Gold medals sounds good to me

  • Isla

    Their so inspiring aren’t they! Can’t wait for the Paralympics to start! Woohoo

  • Isla

    This is soo interesting. I love they are just so inspiring and they never let their disabilities discourage them. Can’t wait wait for the Paralympics to start, I’ll be cheering them on.. woohoo!

  • Annabel

    This is just amazing how these people do these things!! Fun Fact Did you know Australia have more Paralympic medals than the normal Olympics!!

  • Lola

    We have so many amazing Paralympians!

  • Person Unknown

    Hello Person I Don’t Know! I have broke my leg myself so I know how it feels to be disabled and it is extremely hard to swim and climb and even move! So they have done like really well to get this far! Outstanding Work Paralympians!

  • Olive

    Remember having a disability is just like having a different ability!

  • Edith

    It is so cool that they don’t let anything stop them they keep on going and they did not give up

  • Godzilla

  • Will

  • Zali

    I love how they never give up and become Paralympic.

  • Jasmine

  • Jasmine

    Its Good To Not Give Up :)

  • Your Local boring weirdo

    That's so cool!

  • terry

    so cool

  • leni

    Wow! I hope these Paralymipans get a gold medal!!! How courageous of them!

  • Zoe

    I loved how when they thought their dream was being crushed they did not give up. Their amazing !

  • Enzo

  • Zoe

    I loved how they where trying not to give up , even when they thought that their dream was being crushed they found another way. Their amazing !

  • lioncub422

    Wow go NZ

  • cool

  • sarah

    I've been waiting my whole life for this moment.

  • Memorial

  • Thunderbolt

    COOOoooooooooool

  • tigerqueen270911

    they are so inspiring, it just makes you smile how they keep going

  • tigerqueen270911

    epic

  • I have dwarfism

  • this is the best

  • Alice

    Brilliant

  • ikiasuka

    go paralympimc

  • Trym

  • Sumayyah

    Great Job! These stars were inspired an didn't let their disabilities drag them behind. they're awesome!

  • WOOOOOOOOW

  • Isla

  • Bookworm21

    Amazing

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    COOOOOOOL

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    Can’t wait

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    WOW amazing

  • Edie

    i love how you put young people in them

  • ava m

    awsome keep up the good work

  • Wow

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    cool

  • cool

  • rubyb1752

    nice

  • Autumn

    These guys are amazing!!! They've inspired me so much!

  • me

    NICE! YOU HAVE ALOT OF INFO

  • cookie bannana

    cool

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    cool

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    :)

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    really good

  • ~~~

  • parker

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    Cool!

  • save the ocean

    love it cant wait for the paralympics

  • bull shark

  • Kanchi

  • lucca

    cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Bayswater

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