Paris Paralympics 2024: Who are the youngest and oldest in India's contingent?

The Indian contingent will see 38 para-athletes competing in track and field events at Paris Paralympics 2024.

The Paris Paralympics 2024 will get underway in a few hours as the Indian contingent has been expected to bring multiple medals for the nation. The Indian contingent has 84 para-athletes competing in 12 sporting disciplines. The events will begin from August 29 and will conclude on September 8.

Amongst the 84-member contingent, India will see 52 men and 32 women competing at Paris. The Para athletics contingent has the most number of participants with 38 members, para badminton will have 13 and shooting will have 10. Para Swimming and para taekwondo will only have one athlete each. 

There are para-athletes who are making their Paralympic debut and veterans who are looking to increase their medal tally.

Who is the youngest Indian athlete competing at Paris Paralympics 2024?

The youngest Indian athlete who will be competing at Paris Paralympics will be Sheetal Devi. The 17-year-old will be competing in women’s individual compound open and mixed team compound open in ST category. Devi was born without arms, but it did not stop her from becoming one of the top medal contenders at Paris. She is training under former archer and coach Kuldeep Vedwan’s academy.

She was awarded the best women para archer of the year in 2023 by World Archery. The teenager won silver in the women’s individual compound open during the 2023 World Archery Para Championships.

Also Read: Meet Romica Sharma: World No. 1 Sheetal Devi’s escort, ‘sister’ and fellow archer

Devi also won gold in women’s individual compound open last year at the Para Asian games. The youngster will hope to break more records in her Paralympic debut at Paris. She will look to be the youngest Indian medallist at the Paralympics and hope to secure India’s first para archery gold.

Sheetal Devi is EXTRAORDINARY.🔥🔥🔥#ParaArchery #ArcheryAsia pic.twitter.com/ts62qVJl89

— World Archery (@worldarchery) December 24, 2023

Who is the oldest Indian athlete competing at Paris Paralympics 2024?

The oldest Indian athlete who will be competing at Paris will be Sidhartha Babu. The 45-year-old will be competing at the Paralympics for the second time and made his debut in Tokyo. Babu will be competing in R3 – Mixed 10m air rifle prone and R6 – Mixed 50m rifle prone under the SH1 category.

He had competed in two events at Tokyo as well. The senior athlete finished 40th in R3 – Mixed 10m Air Rifle prone and ninth in R6 – Mixed 50m Rifle prone under the SH1 category. He will now hope to win his first Paralympic medal.

Babu is self-taught, self-coached and has designed his own wheelchair. He had met with an accident at the age of 19 and was bedridden. Ever since then he has been reading and learning more about the sport.

Babu and Devi will be aiming to achieve records in their respective events at Paris Paralympics 2024. Both athletes will be competing in multiple events.

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