Paralympic bokeh is practiced by people with a severe degree of physical-motor impairment, whether due to cerebral palsy or spinal cord injury. Until the Paralympics in Tokyo (Japan), athletes were divided by classes only according to the dimension of the disability. That is, men and women competed together. From now on, for the Paris Games (France), there is a separation on the basis of gender.
Paralympic medalist Maisel Santos, who is suffering from cerebral palsy, believes the change will be good for Brazil. According to him, earlier, there were only seven medals (four individually). Now, there are more chances for both men and women to find a place on the podium.
At the Tokyo Games, individual medals only went to the men in the four boxe classes. Two of them, Silver, came to Brazil, one with Maisel, who was the champion at London 2012 (United Kingdom). Before the gender divide, the country had one woman in the top-10 of one category or the other. Now it’s five.
Already in this new system, at the Copa América, held in So Paulo in December, the Brazilian team was on the podium ten times in the individual events: five in the men’s and five in the women’s. It’s a sign Brazil could be going strong for this year’s world championships to be held in Rio de Janeiro from December 3 to 14. Maciel looks forward to this and invites fans to attend Olympic Park to support the country’s athletes.
