Tokyo Paralympics 2020: All you need to know about Indian athletes and their schedule

The history of the Paralympic Games dates back to 1948, when Dr Ludwig Guttman organised the first competition for wheelchair athletes, which was then named as Stoke Mandeville Games. They included 16 injured men and women, who participated in archery. The Stoke Mandeville Games later came to be referred as the Paralympic Games, the first edition of which took place in Rome in 1960. As many as 400 athletes with different impairments and disabilities took part in the Paralympics, which have since been held every four years.

After their most successful Olympics ever at Tokyo, India’s focus now shifts to the Summer Paralympics in the Japanese capital which will run from 25 August to 6 September 2021. Indian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Paralympics since 1984, and this time, they will be aiming to replicate the nation’s fine run at the recently concluded Games. The upcoming edition will see sports such as badminton and taekwondo making their debut. Indian contingent at Paralympic Games  54 Indian athletes will be competing at Tokyo Paralympics across nine sports - archery, athletics, badminton, shooting, table tennis, para canoeing, swimming, powerlifting and taekwondo. The last edition of the Paralympics (in Rio in 2016) witnessed participation of only 19 Indian athletes as the nation registered its most successful Paralympics with two golds, one silver and one bronze. High jumper Mariyappan Thangavelu, who had won a gold in the last edition in Rio, will be the nation’s flag bearer at the Tokyo Paralympics 2020. Some of India’s brightest medal prospects include Devendra Jhajharia, who will be eyeing his third gold (after 2004 and 2016) F-46 javelin throw, Mariyappan, who competes in the T-63 high jump, and world champion Sandeep Choudhary, who also competes in the F-46 javelin throw.

Here’s all you need to know about the broadcast and schedule of the Indian contingent at the Paralympic Games 2020:  When will the Tokyo Paralympics 2020 take place?  The Tokyo Paralympics will be held from 25 August to 6 September, 2021. Where will Tokyo Paralympics 2020 be broadcast? DD Sports will broadcast the live coverage of Paralympics Tokyo 2020 on all cable and DTH platforms. Where can fans enjoy the live streaming of the Tokyo Paralympics 2020?  Tokyo Paralympics will be telecasted on EUROSPORT and EUROSPORT HD. Who are the Indian athletes participating in Tokyo Paralympics 2020 and when will their matches take place?  Archery Friday, 27 August  Men’s Recurve Individual Open - Harvinder Singh, Vivek Chikara Men’s Compound Individual Open - Rakesh Kumar, Shyam Sundar Swami Women’s Compound Individual Open - Jyoti Baliyan Compound Mixed Team Open - Jyoti Baliyan & TBC Badminton 1 September  Men’s Singles SL3 - Pramod Bhagat, Manoj Sarkar Women’s Singles SU5 - Palak Kohli Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 - Pramod Bhagat & Palak Kohli 2 September  Men’s Singles SL4 - Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj, Tarun Dhillon Men’s Singles SS6 - Krishna Nagar Women’s Singles SL4 - Parul Parmar Women’s Doubles SL3-SU5 - Parul Parmar & Palak Kohli Para Canoeing 2 September  Women’s VL2 - Prachi Yadav Powerlifting 27 August  Men’s 65kg - Jaideep Deswal Women’s 50kg - Sakina Khatun Swimming 27 August 200 Individual Medley SM7 - Suyash Jadhav 3 September 50m Butterfly S7 - Suyash Jadhav, Niranjan Mukundan Table Tennis 25 August  Individual C3 - Sonalben Madhubhai Patel Individual C4 - Bhavina Hasmukhbhai Patel Taekwondo 2 September Women’s K44 -49kg - Aruna Tanwar Shooting 30 August  Men’s R1 – 10 m air rifle standing SH1 - Swaroop Mahavir Unhalkar, Deepak Saini Women’s R2 – 10 m air rifle SH1 - Avani Lekhara 31 August  Men’s P1 – 10 m air pistol SH1 - Manish Narwal, Deepender Singh, Singhraj Women’s P2 – 10 m air pistol SH1 - Rubina Francis 4 September  Mixed R3 – 10 m air rifle prone SH1 - Deepak Saini, Sidhartha Babu & Avani Lekhara 2 September  Mixed P3 - 25 m pistol SH1 - Akash & Rahul Jakhar 3 September  Men’s R7 - 50 m rifle 3 positions SH1 - Deepak Saini Women’s R8 – 50 m rifle 3 positions SH1 - Avani Lekhara 4 September  Mixed P4 – 50 m pistol SH1 - Akash, Manish Narwal & Singhraj 5 September  Mixed R6 – 50 m rifle prone SH1 - Deepak Saini, Avani Lekhara & Sidhartha Babu Athletics 28 August  Men’s Javelin Throw F57 - Ranjeet Bhati 29 August  Men’s Discus Throw F52 - Vinod Kumar Men’s High Jump T47 - Nishad Kumar, Ram Pal 30 August  Men’s Discus Throw F56 - Yogesh Kathuniya Men’s Javelin Throw F46 - Sundar Singh Gurjar, Ajeet Singh, Devendra Jhajharia Men’s Javelin Throw F64 - Sumit Antil, Sandeep Choudhary 31 August  Men’s High Jump T63 - Sharad Kumar, Mariyappan Thangavelu, Varun Singh Bhati Women’s 100m T13 - Simran Women’s Shot Put F34 - Bhagyashri Madavrao Jadhav 1 September  Men’s Club Throw F51 - Dharambir Nain, Amit Kumar Saroha 2 September Men’s Shot Put F35 - Arvind Malik 3 September  Men’s High Jump T64 - Praveen Kumar Men’s Javelin Throw F54 - Tek Chand Men’s Shot Put F57 - Soman Rana Women’s Club Throw F51 - Ekta Bhyan, Kashish Lakra 4 September  Men’s Javelin Throw F41 - Navdeep Singh