The work on setting up the Paris Olympic village and improving the infrastructure started a long time ago. Last year, a small delegation went to Paris to get to know and check the progress of the work, including Diāna Krūmiņa, who was recognized as the best para-athlete in Latvia last year and will participate in the Paralympic Games for the third time.
Latvian Paralympians are preparing for the start of the Paris Games
In order to successfully run the Paralympic Games, a special town was built in Paris where the para-athletes will live. In the newly built houses, all the apartments are adapted and will not cause problems for a participant in a wheelchair or a person with visual impairments to move around, because texts in Braille have been created everywhere in the building, and the absence of thresholds will protect against getting stuck and getting injured.
Low-income and needy people, as well as families with many children, will live in the houses built for the Paralympians after the Games, as this is a sustainability project for their more successful integration into society. The total costs are 8-9 billion euros, but the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro cost 16 billion euros.
According to Kruminas,
the biggest challenge will be transportation, as the athletes must be transported both to the training and game venues and back to the hotels.
However, Parisians have already been informed and are aware that a grand event will take place in their city. Parisians were urged to leave the capital during the Games if possible, or at least to use less personal transport.
“These are the post-covid games. Finally, we will be able to enjoy freedom, not to wonder if someone is sick, and we won’t have to do tests every day,” said Krūmiņa. “Of course, I can only speak about Latvians – we ride with pleasure. There are six of us so far, but I hope that someone else will join. The regulations are terribly high. I would like another 5-6 people to join, but – we’ll live, we’ll see, there is still time. We are driving to show the best results we can, and of course our goal is to spread Latvia’s name around the world.”
At the end of June, it is known that Latvia will be represented at the Paris Paralympic Games by Diāna Krūmiņa, Aigars Apinis and Emīls Dzilna in athletics, Oskars Gailišs in road cycling, and Yuris Semyonovs will swim four disciplines for the first time – 50 meters freestyle, 100 meters backstroke, 50 meters butterfly and 200 meters in the complex distance. On the other hand, the experienced Rihards Snikus with the horse “King of the Dance” will compete in the para dressage. Dzilna will be one of the youngest athletes, making her debut at the Paralympic Games at the age of 23.
The final composition of the Latvian delegation will be known in the second half of July,
said Daiga Dadzīte, president of the Latvian Paralympic Committee. There are also hopes of getting starting places in shooting, wheelchair fencing, athletics, archery and triathlon, which would allow to increase the composition to up to 13 athletes.
The Paris Paralympic Games will last from August 28 to September 8.
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