After a successful Paralympic debut this September, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) on Saturday announced Para-badminton will have a total of 16 medal events at Paris 2024, two more than at Tokyo 2020.
The introduction of women's singles SL3, women's singles SH6, and mixed doubles SH6 for the first time will see an equal number of singles events for men and women, and equal athlete representation with 60 players across each gender.
Women's doubles SL3-SU5 drops from the programme. The change is in keeping with the IPC's quest to increase the number of competition opportunities for women and athletes with high support needs. Something BWF supports strongly.
BWF President Poul-Erik Hoyer said this was a positive step for the growth of Para badminton moving forward.
"We are very happy that badminton will now have seven medal events for men and women, as well as two mixed events. Our Para badminton players put on a fantastic show in Tokyo and this quota increase for Paris is recognition of the great impact we made this year," said Hoyer.
"It's also a great reward for the many years of hard work by the entire Para badminton community to secure our place within the Paralympic family," he added.
The IPC announced a raft of quota changes for the next Paralympic Games following lengthy consultations with International Federations. In total, the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will feature a maximum of 4,400 Para athletes who will compete in 549 medal events across 22 Para sports.
The Games will include a record 235 medal events for women, eight more than at Tokyo 2020. This number also represents a 28 per cent increase on the 183 medal events for female athletes at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games.
In addition to more medal events, there will be at least 1,859 slots for female athletes, 77 more than Tokyo 2020. This record number is almost double the 990 women that took part at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games. The overall number of participating females at Paris 2024 could increase further as there are 339 gender-free slots for the Games.
Badminton has two gender-free events with SL3-SU5 mixed doubles and SH6 mixed doubles.
( With inputs from ANI )
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