Must-Watch GB Athletes:
Sophie Hahn – Para-athletics
After breezing through the T38 100m event in Tokyo successfully defending her world title and tying the world record, the journey for the 27-year-old from Nottingham has not been smooth sailing.
Hahn struggled during the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where she finished behind GB teammate and fellow paralympian, Olivia Breen, to her first major competition 100m final loss since 2014.
Paris 2023 Worlds was also a difficult moment for Hahn, with bronze in 100m and 200m, although the second race is not a Paralympic one but at the end of the race was a silver in the universal relay.
She meets a good quality field in Paris with current world champion Luca Ekler of Hungary and Colombian duo Darian Jiminez, who became the 2023 world champion and Tokyo Olympics silver medalist, and Karen Palomeque, who settled for a silver behind Ekler in Kobe, plus the new Greek kid on the block, Lida Manthopolou.
But an impressive run at the London Diamond League meeting last month in A12. When the Swede completed the race in 55 seconds—the fastest time in the world this year—it was clear that Hahn would not relinquish her title easily.
T38 100m: Saturday, 31 August; 4x100m universal relay: Friday, 6 September
William Ellard (Para-swimming)
British Para-swimmer Amy Ellard is a first-time competitor on the British Para-swimming team; in Tokyo, her preferred S14 category of swimmers with intellectual disabilities saw Reece Dunn make gains of three golds, a silver, and a bronze.
It is St. Felix Swimming Club based in Beccles, of which the 18-year-old swimmer has advanced significantly in the last couple of years.
His first major international test came in the Para-swimming World Championships held in Manchester last year, where he bagged silver in the 200m freestyle and gold and silver in the relay.
This year he has equaled the world record for men in the 200m freestyle test, the record washed by Dunn and also in the 100m test for butterfly, ranking for the year 2024 he is in the world. The Scot achieved gold in both at the Open European Championships in Madeira in April and was also runner-up in the backstroke and third in the medley as he concentrated on individual races and the freestyle relay.
Outside of the pool, Ellard is a Formula 1 enthusiast and can recite the list of all F1 world champions from 1950 to 2023.
S14 butterfly: Thursday, 29 August; S14 200m freestyle: Saturday, 31 August; S14 Mixed 4x100m freestyle relay: Sunday, 1 September; SM14 200m medley: Wednesday, 4 September; S14 100m backstroke: Friday, 6 September
Kadeena Cox (Para-cycling)
Cox, who has been involved in both cycling and athletics in the past two games, will be more active on the bicycles this time.
The 33-year-old from Leeds initially pursued her athletic career in sprinting, but after a stroke in 2014, her multiple sclerosis diagnosis began her on her para-sport journey.
At Rio, she had a first taste of the Games, and she was able to achieve a recognized feat by winning a medal in two sports, namely cycling and athletics, making her the first Briton to do this since 1988, and she even got the honor of being the flag bearer at the closing ceremony.
Between Rio and Tokyo, she had to overcome a knee injury, concussion, disordered eating, and the pandemic and still managed to win the c4-5 500m time trial and the mixed team relay sprint. She described how she came out fourth in her athletics event, the T38 400 meters.
Paris build-up has also not been easy for Cox, as she had a relapse of her MS just three days after clinching gold at the 2023 World Championships in Glasgow and then had two calf muscle tears, which put paid to her future as an athlete in Paris, but she remains the world champion, having retained her title in Brazil in March and would definitely be eager to do well on the big stage.
Women’s C4-5 500m: Thursday, 29 August; Mixed C1-5 team sprint: Sunday, 1 September
Phil Pratt – Wheelchair basketball
Even though the 30-year-old Welshman began his sportsman career as a wheelchair tennis player, he achieves unprecedented success in wheelchair basketball.
Pratt has been to a Paralympic event only once before at London 2012, where he featured in the opening ceremony where he and eight other under-23 GB teammates helped in carrying the flag.
He played for GB seniors for the first time at the World Championship and has been an important part of the team ever since. He won bronze at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and was team captain when GB won the World Championship in 2018 and also European Championships.
However, various accidents on and off the court restricted him from getting selected for the Tokyo Paralympics and he said that being a spectator as his teammates secured a bronze motivated him for Paris.
Pratt rejoined the team and has played at European club Amiab Albacete for Spanish champions. At the 2023 world championships, played in Dubai, GB won a last-gasp bronze after a defeat in the last match of the USA. He was also into All Star Five in the tournament.
Men’s wheelchair basketball: Thursday, 29 August-Saturday, 7 September
Claire Taggart – Boccia
For Taggart, this will be the third Olympics and one can understand that she will be looking forward to being third-lucky in Paris.
She was already a history-maker when she competed in Rio in 2016—the first Paralympian from Northern Ireland in the sport until she began—and will go to Tokyo wanting to be the first woman to take individual gold for ParalympicsGB since 1984 as part of the BC2 competition.
At age 19, she was diagnosed with the neurological disorder dystonia that causes involuntary contractions of muscles and joints and spasms and uses a wheelchair full time.
Getting a boccia transformed her life and she became a member of the world-class program in 2015.
Since Tokyo 2020, the sport splits the category into men and women categories. Thus, Taggart won world gold in Rio in 2022 and European bronze in 2023.She arrived in Paris as world number one in the BC1 category and will also compete for the BC1/2 team.
Taggart, now 29, is also a music lover and a pet lover who has six tortoises, such as Gary Lightbody, named after the lead singer of Snow Patrol or Biffy, the name derived from the Scottish rock band, Biffy Clyro. She is also a disability access officer for Irish League champions the Larne FC.
Women’s BC2: Thursday, 29 August-Sunday, 1 September; BC1/2 team: Tuesday, 3-Thursday, 5 September
Jonnie Peacock – Para-athletics
Peacock has had success before at this event and has medaled at his last three Paralympics and wants another at number four.
Many have since known him for hushing the crowd at the London 2012 before he went on to win T44 100m.
In 2012, he defended his Paralympic title in London and then won the 2013 world title in Henley on Thames before joining the cast of BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2017, the first contestant with a lower limb amputation ever.
They have not been has easy and in Tokyo he “only” managed to win a bronze medal in 100m alongside Germany’s Johannes Floors, while Felix Streng overpowered the 100-meter race to win the gold, but he was second in the universal relay.
There was low expectation when he competed at last year’s World Championships in Paris, where he only managed to get a position of fifth due to Italian newcomer Maxcel Amo Manu declaring himself on the senior scene.
Having been the sixth fastest on paper in 2024 and now aged 31, Peacock is a man who loves the stage and it will be unwise to count him out of another medal bid in both the individual and the universal relay categories.
T64 100m: heats Sunday, 1 September, final Monday, 2 September; 4x100m universal relay: Friday, 6 September
Rachel Choong – Para-badminton
Choong had to be a mere spectator as badminton launched its Paralympic campaign in Tokyo with her SH6 category for short-stature players missing the initial list of events.
However, her journey since playing for Paris began in late 2021, and after three years and after training as a full-time athlete, she will become the first female GB player in the Games at 30 years old from Liverpool.
Born with Chinese-Malaysian descent, Choong has been participating in the international tournament since 2008 and represented her country at the World Championships since 2013, where she clinched the gold medal in women’s singles and the mixed doubles category. Since then she has been a regular in accumulating major championship singles and doubles medals.
She said salvaging the chance to become a full-time athlete and train for the Paralympics was like grabbing hold of something with two hands. More recently, she will chase medals on two fronts in Paris as GB seeks a first gold in the sport.
In addition to the singles, where she is the third in the world, she has a good prospect in the mixed doubles, where she and her partner Jack Shephard are number one in the world and have gained the bronze at worlds and the Europeans within the past couple of years.
Born and raised in Europe, a self-confessed ‘foodie’, Choong would often accompany her family to her grandparents Chinese and Asian supermarkets and was even employed there in her teenage years.
Women’s SH6 singles and SH6 mixed doubles: Thursday, 29 August-Monday, 2 September
Dan Powell – Para-judo
This time Powell is taking to the judo mat in Paris as a tradition his family demands.
The 33-year-old from Liverpool, who was born with a visual impairment, was just a child when his father, Terence ‘Terry’, who is also visually impaired, competed in the 1988 Games in Seoul and the 1996 Games in Atlanta, where he won bronze in both events.
He performed for the first time at the Lond 2012 Paralympics, but both he and his brother, Marc, failed to clinch a medal.
For in 2018, he could become famous and he participated in the scariest show on ITV, Ninja Warrior UK. Even though he took part in London, he came out to be the only contestant with a visual impairment.
He then went on to take up rowing and did well, claiming the seventh place in Tokyo but the spirit for judo was conquered and he opted to switch to judo alone.
The decision has been rewarded with silver in his J1-90kg event at the 2022 World Championships in Baku, followed by silver at the 2023 European Championships in Rotterdam and he has gone to Paris as the world number three.
Powell is also very enthusiastic to contribute his time for the betterment of the sport and to help out the people of Leicester, he founded the GNR8 Academy, a social initiative that aims to make a positive change in the community by promoting active living among the population regardless of physical abilities and disabilities. He was awarded the Social Impact Award in the early part of this year at the PLx Awards set by UK Sport.
Men’s -90kg J1: Saturday, 7 September
