Indian Contingent For Tokyo Paralympic 2020 Will Get Grand Send-Off Today

New Delhi: Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur will grace the Grand Send-Off Ceremony of the Indian Paralympic contingent for Tokyo Paralympic 2020 here on Thursday. This time a record number of 54 Para athletes will participate in 9 different sports. Many of the athletes have qualified with world record performance which raises the medal expectations. The Tokyo Paralympic will be held from August 24 to September 5, 2021.

High jumper Mariyappan Thangavelu, Gold medalist of Rio Paralympics 2016,  will be the flag bearer for the Indian contingent in the opening ceremony. India has won a total of four medals in Rio out of which two were Gold. That was India’s best-ever performance.

The Send-Off Ceremony is organized at hotel Ashoka from 10.30 am onwards.  According to the information, Shri G. Kishan Reddy, Hon'ble Minister of Tourism, Shri Nisith Pramanik, Hon'ble MOS of Youth Affairs, and MOS for Home Affairs, Smt. Meenakshi Lekhi, Hon'ble Minister of State for External Affairs and Dr. Deepa Malik, President Paralympic Committee of India will also grace the occasion.

Eurosport will show the Live coverage of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Paralympic Games. The Paralympic Committee of India has awarded the rights to broadcast the Tokyo 2020 Summer Paralympic Games to Eurosport India. Live coverage will start on August 27 to coincide with the men’s and women’s archery events at Yumenoshima Park Archery Field. The Eurosport feed will also be LIVE on the discovery+ app.

Fans will be able to cheer every Indian hero throughout the Games, including world No.3 and world No.2 Sumit Antil and Sandeep Chaudhary in Javelin; Manish Narwal (10m air pistol), Singhraj (10m air pistol) and Avani Lekhara (10m air rifle, 50m air rifle) in shooting and Mariyappan Thangavelu in High Jump.  Thangavelu will also be the flag bearer for the Indian team. Badminton will make its debut at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Paralympic Games, which will feature as many as five shuttlers in the men’s category – Pramod Bhagat, Manoj Sarkar, Tarun Dhillon, Suhas Yathiraj and Krishna Nagar alongside the women’s doubles pairing of Parul Parmar, Palak Kohli.

On August 3, Shri Anurag Thakur launched the theme song “Kar De Kamaal Tu” for the Indian Paralympic contingent in New Delhi. This song is composed and sung by a Divyang cricket player Sanjeev Singh,  who is a resident of Lucknow. The idea of the Paralympic Committee of India was to get the song composed from the Divyang community as a mark of inclusiveness. The lyrics of the song motivate not only the athletes but all the people with any form of disability to never underestimate themselves and what they have in them to create wonders.

Speaking on the occasion, Anurag Thakur had said that "India is sending its largest-ever contingent to the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. India will be watching your every move, we will be following your incredible journey at the Games. The sheer determination of our Para-Athletes shows their phenomenal human spirit. Remember that when you play for India you will have  130 crore Indians cheering for you! I am extremely confident that our para-athletes will give their optimum best! Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met our Rio 2016 Paralympic Games athletes and has always had a keen interest in the welfare of our athletes and focussed the government's approach on nurturing talent along with the development of sports infrastructure across the country. I would also like to congratulate the Paralympic Committee of India and its President  Deepa Malik for ensuring that our athletes are well prepared and receive the best facilities."