Paris 2024: The stories that led these Paralympians to the top of their game
With tonight's opening ceremony heralding the start of the Paralympic Games, the world's attention is turning to the next crop of athletes hoping to bring back gold from Paris.
Behind the feats of elite athleticism are inspiring individual stories of grit and graft to make it to the biggest stage in the world.
The Paris 2024 Summer Paralympics Opening Ceremony takes place on Wednesday and is followed by 11 days of competition – from August 29 to September 8.
Here's a look at some of the athletes expected to top the podium this summer:
Iona Winnifrith
At just 13 years old, Iona Winnifirth is one of the youngest-ever competitors at the Paralympic Games.
She is competing in the 100m breaststroke for Paralympics GB and is ranked number one in the world for her event.
Her career can be counted in months rather than years: she started swimming at age five and has already won numerous titles across Europe.
She won the European titles in the SB7 100m Breaststroke and SM7 200m Individual Medley, in addition to an S7 50m Butterfly bronze in Madeira.
She has already achieved more than many professional swimmers do in their career, and she was only born in 2011.
Winnifrith, who was born with a form of skeletal dysplasia which causes short stature due to short limbs, was first introduced to swimming when watching her brothers train at Tonbridge SC. Shortly after, the club invited her to join.
Hunter Woodhall
The American track-and-field athlete has become one of the most famous paralympic athletes on the planet in recent years thanks, in part, to a golden marriage.
Woodhall is married to fellow Olympian Tara Davis-Woodhall who won the gold medal in the women's long jump at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The couple share their lives on a YouTube channel that has more than 800,000 subscribers.
Their shared journey has made them a darling of the US media.
Appearances on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and other media programmes have raised his public profile and helped fundraise his appearances in international competitions.
Woodhall, 25, had both his legs amputated when he was 11 months old due to being born with fibular hemimelia a condition that severely limits the growth of bones in the legs and feet.
He began running at school and by the time he was 18, had won bronze in the 2016 Summer Paralympics, making him a minor celebrity in his home town of Syracuse.
By the time he left school, he was one of the top American athletes and often competed alongside non-disabled runners.
He won bronze in the 4 x 400 at the SEC Outdoor Championships competing alongside non-disabled runners and was nominated for NCAA Game Changer of the Year.
Woodhall is clearly a rising talent, and is now hoping to clinch his first Olympic medal.
Liam McGarry
McGarry is entering the Paralympics with high hopes for himself and Paralympics GB in the men's weightlifting.
He has been setting UK weightlifting records in recent months and is hoping to make a name for himself on the international stage.
He won gold in the 2018 Spinal Unit Games and bronze in his first-ever international competition in 2020.
In 2021, he picked up silver at the Manchester 2021 Para Powerlifting World Cup breaking the British record.
McGarry was diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis – inflammation of the spinal cord – while at university in 2017.
The condition caused him to lose most of the function in his legs and he now uses a wheelchair.
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Since his diagnosis, McGarry found a new passion in life in weightlifting and joined the Spinal Unit Games.
Speaking to Bournemouth University, where he studied for his degree, he said: "After my injury, I was at a crossroads, not really knowing where to go.
"Once I found the route of Para Powerlifting, everyone moved heaven and earth to help me."
McGarry qualified for Paris at the final opportunity by finishing in the top eight of the qualification tournament with a personal best lift of 230kg.
Femita Ayanbeku
Ayanbeku is an American athlete and has competed in two previous Paralympic games and earned bronze at the 2019 World Championships.
She holds the American record in the 100m event in the heats of the 2020 games, only to have to drop out of the final of the Tokyo tournament after contracting Covid.
Setting her eyes on the 2024 games, she began training again only to take some time off after giving birth to her daughter.
She found recovering from the birth while training intensely difficult but after fighting through it she qualified for the games just six months later.
She lost her right leg when she was 11 after a car accident left her requiring amputation below the knee.
After recovering from her accident she attempted to get into basketball but found the prosthetic was too uncomfortable.
Soon after, she met Paralympian Jerome Singleton who inspired her to pick up running.
She has since said running came naturally to her and let her feel like she had two feet again.
Reflecting on the journey of her qualification, she told Forbes: "Trust your training, trust that your body knows what it’s doing, and everything you’ve done up until now, is all that you could have done.”
Amalia Perez
Perez is one of the most successful Paralympians of all time and has won powerlifting competitions in three different divisions.
The 51-year-old Mexican has been competing at the highest level since 2000 and is heading into the 2024 games as one of the favourites in her class.
Perez was born with congenital arthrogryposis which severely limits the use of some limbs and she uses a wheelchair in everyday life.
She currently holds six Paralympic medals, which include four golds, and has four golds in the Parapan American Games.
Speaking to the Paralympic Games organisers she said when she was born her mother was told she would not have the time to raise a disabled child alongside her two other children.
The doctors recommended, "an injection of air to the heart to not exist." Her mother refused.
Avani Lekhara
Lekhara, 22, is one of India's top Paralympians. She catapulted to national attention after becoming the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the Paralympics in 2020.
She is currently ranked one in the Women's 10m Air Rifle.
She also holds a bronze from the 2020 Paralympics in a different category and has won several international shooting competitions.
At the age of 11, she was left without the ability to use her legs after a car accident.
Her father encouraged her to pick up sports and she trained in archery before switching to rifle shooting in 2015 where she found her true passion.
She said shooting helped her "come out of her shell" and led to her trying things she never thought she would have tried.
Anastasia Pagonis
At just 17, Pagonis represented the USA in the Tokyo Paralympics where she set the world record for the women's 400m freestyle in the heats, only to beat the record again in the finals when she won gold.
She picked up a bronze in the 200m category and won three golds in the 2022 World Para Swimming Championship.
Pagonis was interested in sports from a young age and joined a local football team in her home city of New York when she was 11.
But not long after she was diagnosed with autoimmune retinopathy which caused her to completely lose her sight by the time she was 14.
She struggled deeply with accepting the loss of her sight, but found new joy in swimming, despite the difficult transition.
Speaking to the Olympic organisers she said learning to swim in the dark led to her breaking all her "fingers, hands, ankles... A difficult learning curve to say the least”.
Recovering from the depression that followed the loss of her sight, with the help of her guide dog Radar, she has become one of the USA's most successful paralympic swimmers.
She has shared her story on Instagram and TikTok and has used her newfound fame to educate people about living with blindness.
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