Chinese Paralympic athletes return to training for Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022
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Chinese Paralympic athletes have returned to training for Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 after their centres were closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The China Disabled Persons Federation (CDPF) announced a total of 388 team members, including 239 athletes, have joined training camps for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Track and field, swimming, table tennis, badminton, weightlifting, wheelchair fencing, shooting, archery, cycling, judo, blind football, and sitting volleyball competitors are among those to have returned to the facilities.
A further 124 athletes, from wheelchair curling, Para ice hockey, cross country skiing, Nordic combined, Alpine ski and snowboarding teams are called up for the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics.
Twenty-one Paralympic training bases have been closed in China, where the virus originated, since January 23.
“We had zero infections {of COVID-19} during the winter training – 854 members of 31 teams are healthy,” CDPF sports department director Zhao Sujing said.
“Now we are focusing on some selected athletes and teams to collect as many Paralympic tickets as possible.
“And because the 2020 Tokyo Games was postponed for one year, we expanded our selections to prepare for the Games.”
China topped the medals table at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro with a total of 239.
The country won one gold medal at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang.
Read More: Chinese Paralympic athletes return to training for Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 2020-05-30 16:00:01