At the Tokyo 2020 Games, Asian countries were dominant, taking five of the top 10 places on the medal table. The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will be the first time that there are separate male and female individual categories meaning that there are four more medal events, taking the total number up to 11.
Asian nations are well placed to take advantage of this extra medal haul, with female athletes from Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, China and Japan all featuring in the top five world rankings across the BC1-4 classifications. The Republic of Korea has been the most successful Asian nation to date, with 10 gold medals.
Ones to watch
Watcharaphon Vongsa from Thailand will be looking to get a fifth Paralympic Gold medal after losing out to Japan’s Hidetaka Sugimura in the BC2 final in Tokyo.
Yuk Wing Leung from Hong Kong, China will be competing in his sixth games. He is the reigning individual Paralympic bronze medallist in the individual BC4 event and also won silver in the Pairs event in Tokyo, and again in Hangzhou.
Jeralyn Tan Yee Ting from Singapore competes in the BC1 event. She is ranked number one in Asia and number two in the world. In October, she won gold in the Póvoa de Varzim 2023 World Boccia Cup, with an emotional 4-2 win over the world ranked number one player, Andreza Vitória De Oliveira from Brazil.
The competition starts on 29th September at the South Paris Arena, with the first medals being awarded in the individual events on the 1st September.
