Clever way blind Paralympians know which medals they’ve received revealed as event kicks off in Paris
BLIND athletes at the Paralympics will be able to tell what medal they have received thanks to a clever new design.
The Games kick off today following last night’s glittering opening ceremony in Paris.
GettyThe medals at this year’s Paralympics have a special design for blind athletes[/caption]
And ParalympicsGB will be eager to top the incredible 124 medals they won — including 41 gold — at the Tokyo Games in 2020.
But the medals at Paris 2024 have had an amazing new feature added to them to help victorious blind athletes know what they’ve won.
Each medal will come engraved with braille.
And they will also differ in texture to each other.
The medals all contain iron from the Eiffel Tower, which was collected following restoration work in recent years.
But it is the braille and texture which will help blind athletes know what they are holding.
The design is similar to the concept at Tokyo 2020, but different to the one at Rio 2016 too.
Back then, each medal came with a rattle inside.
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An athlete who won bronze in Brazil was given a medal featuring 16 steel balls.
That would make a soft rattle sound.
GettyThe Paralympic medals (left) feature braille and different textures, unlike the Olympic medals (centre and right)[/caption]
The TimesAt Rio the Paralympic medals featured steel balls to make a rattling noise[/caption]
While the silver medal contained 20 balls for a louder sound.
And the gold held 28 balls for the loudest noise of the lot.
All of the events taking place at the Paris 2024 Paralympics
Each sport is broken down into subcategories giving athletes the chance to compete on equal terms with those who have a similar impairment.
Here are the events:
Para archery
Para athletics
Para badminton
Blind football
Boccia
Para canoe
Para cycling
Para equestrian
Goalball
Para judo
Para powerlifting
Para rowing
Shooting Para sport
Sitting volleyball
Para swimming
Para table tennis
Para taekwondo
Para triathlon
Wheelchair basketball
Wheelchair fencing
Wheelchair rugby
Wheelchair tennis
