Beijing (AP) – More women than ever before are taking part in the Winter Paralympics in Beijing. The IPC announced a few hours before the opening ceremony that 138 of the 564 starters in China were women.
That’s still less than a quarter, but five more than in PyeongChang 2018, although the number of athletes remained the same. In medal events, women are four fewer than men (35:39). “Gender equality is still a long way off, but the significant increase in female participants shows we’re on the right track,” said IPC President Andrew Parsons.
Partly because of the exclusion of Russia and Belarus, the number of participating nations fell from 49 to 46. Israel, Puerto Rico and Azerbaijan will make their debuts, each with one starter. The largest delegation is host China with 96 athletes, almost a quarter of the total starters. The USA follows with 65. Germany has 17 athletes in China.
In the Nordic area, the German Disabled Sports Association provides the youngest and the oldest starters, 15-year-old Linn Kazmeier and 52-year-old Alexander Ehler. Overall, curler Pam Wilson from the USA is the oldest at 66, the youngest is Austrian skier Elina Stary, who is also 15 years old but another 44 days younger than Kazmeier.