36 Tokyo 2020 gold medal winners will brighten Santiago 2023 Parapan American Games

36 Paralympic champions from Tokyo 2020 will headline in the Santiago 2023 Parapan American Games.

The biggest continental Para sport competition in the Americas will have at least 33 individual gold medallists (some of them even multi-event winners) and three golden teams from the last Paralympic Games.  

As it could be expected, due to a bigger number of events and classes, the most golden winners come from the disciplines of athletics and swimming, with 16 and 12, respectively.

One of the biggest names that will appear in the track in Santiago, and in the Games in general, is Omara Durand, from Cuba. The 31-year-old speedster is basically invincible in the T12 category and won the 100m, 200m and 400m in Tokyo 2020. Nevertheless, her triumphant streak in the Paralympics dates back from London 2012.

Also, she has won gold medals in those same distances in all the Parapan American Games since Rio de Janeiro 2007.

Double gold medallist in T47, Lisbeli Marina Andrade (100m and 200m), from Venezuela, will also run in Santiago.  

Other names from athletics that come with a recent Paralympic gold medal in their luggage are José Rodolfo Chessani (Mexico), José Gregorio Ramos (Colombia), Poleth Isamar Méndes (Ecuador) and Robiel Yankiel Sol (Cuba), just to name a few.

From swimming, the triple Paralympic gold medallist Maria Carolina Gomes, from Brazil, is one of the most eye-catching profiles that will dive into the pool in Santiago. She is also defending the four titles won in the Lima 2019 Parapan American Games.  

Her countryman Gabriel Geraldo dos Santos and American Mallory Weggemann, both two-gold-medal winners in Tokyo, are up there too. The three of them have also world records under their CVs.

However, outside of athletics and swimming there will also be universal talent in Chile. Ian Seidenfeld (USA) from table tennis; Leonor Espinoza (Peru) and Nathan Torquato (Brazil) from taekwondo, and Amalia Pérez (Mexico) and Marina D’Andrea (Brazil) from Powerlifting, are expected to show why they stepped to the top of the podium in Tokyo.

Regarding team sports, USA in wheelchair basketball and Brazil in goalball and blind football will have in their rosters some Paralympic champions and household names within their sports like Josemarcio Sousa and Jefinho in the two latter.

There will also be dozens of participants that won silver and bronze medals in Tokyo 2020 and even athletes with metals of all kinds won in previous Paralympics before Tokyo.

The Opening Ceremony of the Parapan American Games will be on 17 November. The competition will close the curtain on 26 November.

The competition will put together almost 2.000 athletes from 31 countries in 17 different sports through 11 days of intense action.

Multiple sports will even have qualification opportunities for Paris 2024. National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) can obtain direct qualification in blind football, goalball, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby. Meanwhile, in other sports such as Para athletics, Para swimming and Para powerlifting, the athletes can achieve ranking points or performance that count towards qualification.

This will be the seventh edition of the Parapan American Games. The first one happened in 1999, in Mexico City. Other cities that hosted the competition have been Mar del Plata (2003), Rio de Janeiro (2007), Guadalajara (2011), Toronto (2015) and Lima (2019).