Paris 2024 Day 1 Preview: Paralympic Games begins with Canadians competing in nine sports

– Preliminary play begins for team sports: goalball, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby
– Athletes to race in Para swimming, Para cycling medal events

Paris, August 28, 2024 – The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games commenced Wednesday with flag bearers Katarina Roxon and Patrick Anderson leading the Canadian Paralympic Team into the Opening Ceremony. The focus now turns to competition, with Canadians competing across nine sports on the first day of play in Paris. Below is a run-down of Day 1 action for the Paris 2024 Canadian Paralympic Team on Thursday August 29:

Para Swimming
Action will kick off at the La Défense Arena pool at 9:30 a.m. CEST / 3:30 a.m. ET with seven Canadians racing in heats, including 10-time Paralympic medallist Aurelie Rivard. Joining her in the women’s 50m freestyle S10 will be Arianna Hunsicker and Katie Cosgriffe, both making their Paralympic debuts. Shelby Newkirk will race in the women’s 50m freestyle S6, a discipline in which she won bronze at the 2023 world championships.

Three more swimmers will be racing on the Paralympic stage for the first time: Fernando Lu in the men’s 50m freestyle S10 and Clemence Pare and Hannah Ouellette, both in the women’s 200m freestyle S5.

Finals will start at 5:30 p.m. CEST / 11:30 a.m. ET. Canada won eight medals in Para swimming at the Tokyo 2020 Games.

Para Cycling Track
Kate O’Brien and Keely Shaw are the first Canadian Para cyclists in action at the velodrome. Both will race in the women’s C4-5 500m time trial. O’Brien won a silver medal in this event in Tokyo three years ago. Qualifying takes place at 12 p.m. CEST / 6 a.m. ET with the final at 3:45 p.m. CEST / 9:45 a.m. ET.

Sitting Volleyball
Canada will start its podium campaign on Thursday with an opening game against Slovenia at 6 p.m. CEST / 12 p.m. ET. The Canadian women, silver medallists at the 2022 world championships, finished fourth in Tokyo, its best Paralympic finish to date.

Goalball
Canada’s women’s goalball team, gold medallists at the 2023 Parapan Am Games, will face off against host country France in their first matchup of the Games. Play starts at 2:45 p.m. CEST / 8:45 a.m. ET.

Wheelchair Rugby
Canada, fifth at the last Paralympic Games, will take on rival USA to start its tournament. The game starts at 1:30 p.m. CEST / 7:30 a.m. ET.

Para Archery
Kyle Tremblay, Canada’s lone Para archery entry in Paris, will compete in the men’s compound open qualification round starting at 5 p.m. CEST / 11 a.m. ET. He earned his spot in Paris thanks to a bronze-medal performance at the Santiago 2023 Parapan Am Games last November.

Boccia
All of Canada’s four boccia athletes are in preliminary play action on Thursday, with Parapan Am double gold medallist Alison Levine playing two matches – first at 12:50 p.m. CEST / 6:50 a.m. ET against Egypt’s Hanaa Elfar, followed by a duel versus Malaysia’s Noor Askuzaimey Mat Salim at 7:20 p.m. CEST / 1:20 p.m. ET.

Danik Allard and Lance Cryderman will get things started for Canada. Allard will face off against Japanese Takayuki Hirose in men’s BC2 play while Cryderman will challenge Portugal’s Andre Ramos in men’s BC1, both starting at 11:40 a.m. CEST / 5:40 a.m. ET.

Iulian Ciobanu, in the men’s BC4 tournament, will take on Ukrainian Artem Kolinko at 5 p.m. CEST / 11 a.m. ET for his first match.

Wheelchair Basketball
The Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team, fifth at the 2023 world championships, will take on China to open their Paris 2024 campaign. The game tips off at 6:15 p.m. CEST / 12:15 p.m. ET.

Para Badminton
Yuka Chokyu, a three-time Paralympian in wheelchair tennis, will be making her Para badminton debut at the Games on Thursday. She will take on Chinese Taipei’s Hu Guang-Chiou in women’s singles WH1 group stage action, set for not before 6 p.m. CEST / 12 p.m. ET.

The complete schedule for August 29 can be found on the Paris 2024 website HERE.

HOW TO WATCH
Audiences can tune in for CBC/Radio-Canada’s coverage of Paris 2024 in English on CBC, CBC Gem, CBC’s Paris 2024 website (cbc.ca/paris2024) and the CBC Paris 2024 app for Android and iOS devices, and in French on ICI TÉLÉ, ICI TOU.TV, Radio-Canada’s Paris 2024 website (Radio-Canada.ca/jeux-paralympiques), and the Radio-Canada Paralympiques app for Android and iOS devices.