Tokyo (AFP)
Review of the French and international headliners to follow at the Tokyo Paralympic Games which open on Tuesday: French Sahsa Zhoya, winner of the 110m hurdles final at the Under-20 World Championships, on August 20 2021 in Nairobi
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Marie-Amélie Le Fur (FRA)
Double gold medalist in Rio five years ago in the long jump and over 400 meters, the 32-year-old para-athlete dreams of a fireworks outing in Tokyo.
Parallel president of the French Paralympic and Sporting Committee (CPSF), Marie-Amélie Le Fur has one of the richest records in French para-sport (11 medals at the Games) but she has already announced that she will not extend until 'in Paris in 2024.
Marie-Amélie Le Fur, long jump world record holder, trains, under the eyes of her mental trainer Matthieu Benoit, on May 21, 2021 at the Jean-Leroy Stadium in Blois, before participating in her 4th and last Paralympic Games in Tokyo GUILLAUME SOUVANT AFP / Archives
It is the memory of having attended a para-athletics race during the Paris Worlds in 2003 that prompted her to continue in this path after the scooter accident which deprived her of a part of his left leg a year later.
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Stéphane Houdet (FRA)
Flag bearer with Sandrine Martinet of the French delegation, Stéphane Houdet left each of the last three editions of the Games with each time a medal in wheelchair tennis.
Holder of five in total including two in gold in doubles, he puts his Rio Paralympic title on the line with Nicolas Peifer.
French Stéphane Houdet, during the wheelchair final at the US Open against Briton Alfie Hewett, on September 8, 2019 in New York ELSA GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP / Archives
But he would also see himself shine in singles at 50.
In London in 2012, it was the Japanese star Shingo Kunieda, his doubles partner on the circuit at the time, who had deprived him of the gold.
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Sandrine Martinet (FRA)
The other pair of the pair of French flag bearers is the reigning Paralympic champion in judo.
But in Tokyo, the land of her sport and the Nippon Budokan venue, which has done so well in French judokas at the Olympic Games, she will not defend her title… She will fight for gold but in the lower category of less than 48 kg.
Judokate Sandrine Martinet and tennis player Stéphane Houdet, flag bearer of the France team which will participate in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, pose on July 5, 2021 at the Maison du Sport Français in Paris Christophe ARCHAMBAULT AFP / Archives
A change linked to her post-Rio break where the visually impaired para-sportswoman had finally touched the Paralympic grail after two finals lost in Athens in 2004 and then Beijing in 2008. Tokyo could well be her last outing on the tatami mats, at 38 years old, the reflection is in progress.
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Markus Rehm (GER)
Known as the “Blade Jumper”, the German long jumper holds the world record in his class (T64) with a jump to 8.62 meters at the European Championships in June.
The 33-year-old three-time Paralympic champion plans to improve it at the Tokyo National Stadium and his "fast track": "That's my goal, I'll be honest," he said on Sunday.
In this case, he would achieve a better jump than the Greek Olympic champion Miltiadis Tedoglou (8.41 meters).
Certainly a small revenge for Markus Rehm banned from participating in the Olympics, World Athletics considering that his prosthesis gave him an advantage.
German Markus Rehm, during the long jump competition, on August 25, 2019 in Tokyo, as a rehearsal before the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Kazuhiro NOGI AFP / Archives
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Beatrice Vio (ITA)
The wheelchair fencer is a sports icon in her native Italy, where she is a regular guest at Milan Fashion Week and has over a million Instagram followers.
The 24-year-old, nicknamed "Bebe", started fencing at the age of five, before having both legs and forearms amputated when she contracted meningitis at the age of five. 11 years old.
Italian fencer Béatrice "Bebe" Vio, Paralympic champion, after a press conference on October 31, 2017 at Rome airport, before the World Championships (November 6-12) in the Italian capital TIZIANA FABI AFP / Archives
She turned to wheelchair fencing - becoming the first competitive fencer without arms or legs - and won a gold and bronze medal at the Paralympic Games in Rio in 2016.
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Shingo Kunieda (JPN)
World number one, he is one of the most successful wheelchair tennis players and a name that resonates in his native Japan.
Suffered from a spinal cord tumor at the age of nine, he won three gold and two bronze medals at the Paralympic Games, as well as 45 Grand Slam tournaments (singles and doubles)
Japan's Shingo Kunieda, winner of the US Open after beating Britain's Alfie Hewett in the final, September 13, 2020 in New York MATTHEW STOCKMAN GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP / Archives
Reduced by an elbow injury and eliminated in the quarter-finals in Rio, he is more determined than ever to regain the Paralympic title on his soil at 37: "Winning a gold medal in Tokyo is my biggest goal."
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