Natalie du Toit OIG MBE is a South African swimmer. She is best known for the gold medals she won at the 2004 Paralympic Games as well as the Commonwealth Games. She was one of two Paralympians to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; the other being table tennis player Natalia Partyka. Du Toit became the third amputee ever to qualify for the Olympics, where she placed 16th in the 10km swim.
The Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award is named after South Korean Dr. Whang Youn Dai, who contracted polio at the age of three. She devoted her life to the development of paralympic sport in Korea and around the world. At the 1988 Paralympic Summer Games in Seoul, Korea, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) recognized her lifelong contributions to the Paralympic Movement and established the Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award. Since then, this award has been presented at every Paralympic Games to one male and one female athlete who each "best exemplify the spirit of the Games and inspire and excite the world".
Said Gomez is a Panamanian athlete. Visually impaired, having "lost his sight at a young age", he has represented Panama at five consecutive editions of the Summer Paralympic Games. He has won a total of eight Paralympic medals, of which three gold, and is the only Panamanian ever to have medalled at the Paralympic Games.
Martina Monika Willing is a Paralympic athlete from Germany competing in field events. She is both blind and paraplegic. Until 1994 she competed in the F11 classification for vision impaired athletes; following her paralysis, she returned to competition as a seated thrower. Willing has competed and medalled in eight Paralympic Games – all seven summer games from 1992 in Barcelona to 2016 in Rio as well as at the 1994 winter games in Lillehammer. Complications during knee surgery following a fall at the Lillehammer Paralympics led to her paralysis.
Ntombizanele Situ, better known as Zanele Situ, was a South African Paralympian athlete competing mainly in category F54 throwing events. Specialising in the javelin throw, Situ was a two-time gold medalist at both the Paralympics and the IPC Athletics World Championships and was the first female South African black athlete to win a Paralympic gold medal.
Mary Nakhumicha Zakayo is a Kenyan Paralympic track athlete. She competes in the T57 class for javelin, shot put and discus throw. Her first Paralympics was 1992.
Syria competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. It was the nation's thirteenth appearance at the Summer Olympics since its debut in 1948.
Egypt competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 to 18 September 2016. The country sent a delegation of 44 sportspeople. The team included 16-year-old Ayattalah Ayman, the youngest member of the delegation and the first woman to represent Egypt in swimming. It also included 41-year-old Ibrahim Al Husseini Hamadtou, the only table tennis player to compete while holding the paddle in his mouth.
Yusra Mardini OLY is a Syrian former competition swimmer and refugee of the Syrian civil war. She was a member of the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team (ROT) that competed under the Olympic flag at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. On 27 April 2017, Mardini was appointed a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. She also competed in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo with the Refugee Olympic Team (EOR). She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023, alongside her sister, Sarah.
The Refugee Olympic Team competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016, as independent Olympic participants.
Chile competed at the 1992 Summer Paralympics in Barcelona, Spain. The 2 competitors from Chile won no medals and so did not place in the medal table. Swimmer Gabriel Vallejos Contreras, also known as Gabriel Angel, was presented with the Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award during the closing ceremony.
The Independent Paralympic Athletes Team, a team consisting of refugee and asylee Paralympic athletes, competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016. Its creation was announced on 5 August 2016.
Dr Whang Youn Dai is a Korean physician known for her work on the welfare of people with disabilities and her advocacy of sports for those with disabilities. The Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award is named in recognition of her contributions to Paralympic sport.
Syria competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the nation's fourteenth appearance at the Summer Olympics since its debut in 1948.
Alia Issa is one of the six refugees in the Refugee Paralympic Team at the 2020 Summer Paralympics who competed at the delayed Tokyo Paralympics. Issa is based in Athens. She was the first woman parathlete to represent refugees when she competed in the club throw. The day before the opening ceremony it was decided that there would be two flag carriers and that they would be Issa and Abbas Karimi. Issa came eighth in the club throw.
Ileana Rodriguez is a Cuban-born American Paralympic swimmer and sports administrator. She led the Refugee Paralympic Team at the 2020 Summer Paralympics as the Chef de Mission. She was to have been the IPC flag bearer but Abbas Karimi and Alia Issa were subsequently named as the two flag bearers.
The Refugee Paralympic Team, previously the Independent Paralympic Athletes Team, competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan, from 24 August to 5 September 2021. The team consisted of six refugee and asylee Paralympic athletes who represent the estimated 82 million refugees in the world. The formation of the team and its six athletes was announced on 30 June 2021 in a joint statement by the IPC and UNHCR. The team had made its debut at the previous edition of the Paralympics that consisted of just two athletes. That team was considered coordinated and was referred to as "the first". The team was the first to enter the Japan National Stadium during the Parade of Nations at the opening ceremony.
Alaa Maso is a Syrian swimmer.
Parfait Hakizimana is a Burundian parataekwondo practitioner who currently resides in Rwanda. He will represent the Refugee Paralympic Team at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in the under 61 kg category.
Mohammad Abbas Karimi is a swimmer, who came second in the S5 50 meter butterfly event at the 2017 World Para Swimming Championships, making him the first refugee athlete to win a medal at that competition. He came eighth in the 50 meter butterfly S5 event for the Refugee Paralympic Team at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
