The wheelchair basketball event guarantees to be an thrilling spectacle on the Paris 2024 Paralympics, with world-class gamers assured to go away followers on the sting of their seats.
The lads’s and ladies’s competitions will happen between August 29 and September 8 on the Bercy Area within the French capital. Eight groups can be divided into two teams of 4 in every gender.
The group video games will run till September 2, with the quarter-finals on September 4. The showpiece gold medal bout can be on September 8.
Let’s look nearer on the ladies’s teams and the groups concerned.
Group A: Nice Britain, China, Canada, Spain
Tokyo 2020 Paralympic silver-medalists China headline Group A, however on this event, the three groups becoming a member of them have vastly improved rosters, which can make the opening levels attention-grabbing.
Nice Britain secured their spot on the Paralympics by ending runners-up on the IWBF European Championships, a brave effort on condition that they needed to bounce again from an opening-day defeat to Germany. The overwhelming majority of the athletes who featured within the European Championships can be on the ground in Paris. They boast a really skilled squad with a splash of youth blended in. This may very well be their greatest probability to lastly land a podium end for the primary time.
GB’s conquers at Tokyo 2020, China will be part of them within the group levels. The Asian powerhouse has been on an upward trajectory since claiming its first medal three years in the past. In addition they claimed silver on the IWBF World Championships final yr in Dubai. Advancing to the Paralympics by way of successful the IWBF Asia Oceania Championships earlier within the yr, they’ve their shot at redemption. Can they go one higher in Paris?
New Head Coach Michèle Sung teaching Canada on the 2024 IWBF Girls’s Repechage
Canada, one of the crucial profitable Paralympic nations, dominated the IWBF Girls’s Repechage in Osaka, successful each recreation below the steering of latest head coach Michèle Sung, together with an important qualification-sealing victory over Algeria. With Sung on the helm, can they recapture the glory of their previous?
Canada is joined in Group A by fellow IWBF Girls’s Repechage qualifiers, Spain. With an explosive, up-tempo model of play, Spain is trying to construct on their quarter-final end at Tokyo 2020. Now not the underdog, they’ve emerged as severe contenders able to inflicting upsets. The Spanish staff secured their spot in Paris by confidently defeating Thailand within the Repechage.
Standout gamers
Nice Britain has a couple of offensive risk out there to them, and Robyn Love will definitely be one of many leaders in that sense. A participant who’s extra snug close to the paint can actually do plenty of harm there and might create her personal shot flawlessly.
Suiling Lin taking part in for China on the 2022 World Championships
Suiling Lin heads to her third Paralympic Video games for China. Her expertise and steering will undoubtedly be an enormous issue if the Chinese language are to gather the last word prize. She will put factors on the board when wanted, however her true brilliance is making others round her higher.
The Canadian offence has primarily been led by the evergreen Kady Dandeneau, who has free reign and places factors up rapidly. Her affect impacts others on Crew Canada, and the high-scoring staff can be a risk to anybody on their day.
Spain’s roster is well-rounded offensively, with a stable defensive position that makes life uncomfortable for a lot of groups. Beatriz Zudaire can be one to look at as she isn’t afraid to get bodily and has a lethal mid-range shot. When she will get going, it’s robust to comprise her.
Group B: Netherlands, Japan, USA, Germany
The Netherlands, the Paralympic champions, are seen as favourites to progress from Group B, however Japan, the United States of America, and Germany boast intense challenges to begin the Dutch protection.
Netherlands celebrating their changing into World Champions in 2022.
The final three years have been nothing in need of a fairytale for the Netherlands as they added the IWBF World and European crowns to their resume alongside Paralympic success in Tokyo. Sealing their spot by successful the IWBF European Championships in entrance of family and friends in Rotterdam final summer time, the Dutch received all eight video games convincingly, and with their present kind, it’s straightforward to see why they’re favourites.
Japan discovered its own residence comforts again in April because of qualification by way of the IWBF Girls’s Repechage in Osaka. They swept Australia apart to seal their spot, and whereas an out of doors guess for a podium end, they head to Paris with nothing to lose, and that might show harmful for the opposite sides.
The identical will be stated of Germany, who additionally certified by way of the IWBF Girls’s Repechage, beating France to disclaim them an opportunity of competing of their dwelling video games. The Germans have a wealth of expertise, and having simply missed the rostrum in Tokyo, lacking out on bronze to the USA, they are going to be eager to proper these wrongs.
Like their male counterparts, the USA are the Paralympic wheelchair basketball’s most profitable aspect, with 4 gold, a silver, and 4 bronze medals, the latest of which was a third-place end in Tokyo. They are going to be eager to ship an announcement of intent. Their gold medal success over Canada within the last of the Santiago 2023 Parapan Am Video games final yr is proof of that.
Standout gamers
The Netherlands boasts expertise in all places you look. Nonetheless, they do have arguably the most effective two ladies’s wheelchair basketball gamers on the planet, Mariska Beijer and Bo Kramer. The previous, a dominant inside participant, will usually put up 20 factors a recreation and might use her size to change pictures defensively. The latter is a close to triple-double machine. Kramer can rating in all kinds of how, scale back second-chance alternatives, and is an eagle-eyed passer.
Mari Amimoto taking part in for Japan towards USA within the 2022 World Championships
Just like the Dutch, Japan has a double act that may rating factors rapidly. One of the crucial thrilling groups to look at on the IWBF Girls’s Repechage, Chihiro Kitada and Mari Amimoto, can be eager to get began in Paris. Two fearless warriors who can do all of it on the ground, they are going to each be a handful on the courtroom collectively.
Crew USA boasts a roster crammed with seasoned Paralympians, together with a number of adorned stars who’ve a historical past of success. Control veteran Rose Hollermann, who can be making her fourth Paralympic look. Together with her wealth of expertise and dependable scoring skill, Hollermann is a formidable risk contained in the arc and a key participant to look at.
Germany additionally brings loads of expertise to the French capital, with standout gamers like Mareike Miller, a pressure inside and among the best off-ball movers within the recreation. Their ahead gamers are reliant on the off-the-ball work of their world-class guards, together with Anne Patzwald and Catharina Weiss.
To remain up to date on the wheelchair basketball competitors on the Paris 2024 Paralympic Video games, go to the occasion web page or observe us on social media #Paris2024WBB for the newest information and highlights.
Written by John Hobbs for IWBF / Pictures IWBF- Steffie Wunderl Fotografie/SA Photos/X-1
