3 new events for athletes with intellectual disabilities in 2020 Paralympics

The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics will feature 22 sports and the good news is that there will be three new events for athletes with intellectual disabilities.

Swimming for athletes with intellectual disabilities will see a S14 (men) 100m butterfly, S14 (women) 100m butterfly and S14 4 x 100 freestyle relay, which will be a mixed gender (men’s/women’s).

The 4x100m freestyle S14 mixed gender relay will be confirmed after the 2019 World Para Swimming World Championships.

On the whole, the swimming event programme for Tokyo 2020 will have a balanced stroke programme. There will be no more than six events per class.

However, no new events for athletes with intellectual impairment will be introduced in athletics or table tennis. They will remain as T20 (men & women) 1500m, 400m and F20 (men & women) Shot, and Long Jump.

Table tennis for sportspersons with intellectual disabilities also stays the same. There will be one men’s and one women’s singles event for class 11 players.

On the whole there will be 146 medal events. This is six less than the Rio 2016 Games. The Tokyo events will be made up of 76 for men, 67 for women and three mixed gender relays.

To see the full list of the events, click on http://bit.ly/2niMU3h.

Organisers say that by reducing the number of events in both athletics and swimming from Rio 2016, they hope to increase the depth of talent in each field. Adding mixed gender relays will also enable more countries to participate.

The Tokyo Paralympic Games will take place between 25 August – 6 September 2020.