Jessica Tatiana Long is a Russian-American Paralympic swimmer from Baltimore, Maryland, who competes in the S8, SB7 and SM8 category events. She has held many world records and competed at five Paralympic Games, winning 29 medals. She has won over 50 world championship medals.
China was the host of the 2008 Summer Paralympics, held in Beijing. China's delegation included 547 people, of whom 332 were competitors. The athletes, 197 men and 135 women, ranged in age from 15 to 51 and competed in all twenty sports. 226 of the competitors participated in the Paralympic Games for the first time. The delegation was the largest in Chinese history and at the 2008 Games. China topped the medal count at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens. China dominated the medal count winning the most gold, silver, bronze, and total medals by a wide margin in Beijing.
Lisa Christina Llorens, OAM(born 17 January 1978) is an Australian Paralympic athlete. She was born in Canberra. She specialises in Paralympic high jumping, long jumping, and sprinting, participating in competitions for athletes with autism.
Natalia Dorota Partyka is a Polish para table tennis player. Born without a right hand and forearm, she participates in competitions for able-bodied athletes as well as in competitions for athletes with disabilities. Partyka reached the last 32 of the London 2012 Olympic women's table tennis.
Trischa Zorn is an American Paralympic swimmer. Blind from birth, she competed in Paralympic swimming. She is the most successful athlete in the history of the Paralympic Games, having won 55 medals, and was inducted into the Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2012. She took the Paralympic Oath for athletes at the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta.
Haider Ali is an all-around Pakistani para-athlete who created history at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China by winning Pakistan's first ever Paralympic games medal, a silver. He also shared a new world record with his jump of 6.44 meters at the Games. He has competed at the Paralympics on four occasions in 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020. He has the unique record of winning a country's first ever Paralympic gold, silver and bronze medals as he is the only Pakistani to have won a medal in Paralympic history. On 3 September 2021, he became the first gold medalist for Pakistan at the Paralympics.
April Holmes is a Paralympic athlete from the USA competing mainly in category T44 sprint events.
Marie-Amélie Le Fur she is a French Paralympic athlete from Vendôme, Centre Region, competing in T44 sprint and F44 long jump events. Her left leg was amputated below the knee following a motor scooter accident in 2004. Before she lost her leg, she was a French junior running champion. As of 2023, Le Fur is the President of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee.
Yunidis Castillo is a Paralympic athlete from Cuba competing mainly in category T46 sprint events.
Australia competed at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece. It was Australia's 12th year of participation at the Paralympics. The team included 151 athletes. Australian competitors won 101 medals to finish fifth in the gold medal table and second on the total medal table. Australia competed in 12 sports and won medals in 8 sports. The Chef de Mission was Paul Bird. The Australian team was smaller than the Sydney Games due to a strict selection policy related to the athletes' potential to win a medal and the International Paralympic Committee's decision to remove events for athletes with an intellectual disability from the Games due to issues of cheating at the Sydney Games. This was due to a cheating scandal with the Spanish intellectually disabled basketball team in the 2000 Summer Paralympics where it was later discovered that only two players actually had intellectual disabilities. The IPC decision resulted in leading Australian athletes such as Siobhan Paton and Lisa Llorens not being able to defend their Paralympic titles. The 2000 summer paralympic games hosted in Sydney Australia proved to be a milestone for the Australian team as they finished first on the medal tally for the first time in history. In comparing Australia's 2000 Paralympic performance and their 2004 performance, it is suggested that having a home advantage might affect performance.
Zhang Liangmin is a blind Paralympian athlete from China competing mainly in throwing events.
Stephanie Schweitzer is an Australian athletics competitor. She was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in athletics but did not medal.
José Antonio Expósito Piñero is a Paralympic athlete from Spain.
Women's long jump events for amputee athletes were held at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in the Athens Olympic Stadium. Events were held in two disability classes.
Brayden Duane Davidson is an Australian track and field para-athlete who competes mainly in the T36 classification events. He won a bronze medal at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships. At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, he won the gold medal in the Men's Long Jump T36.
China has qualified to send athletes to the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016. Sports China competed in include blind football, archery, boccia, cycling, goalball, judo, paracanoeing, sitting volleyball and wheelchair basketball.
Vanessa Low is a German-born Australian Paralympic athlete competing in T42 sprint and long jump events. Born in East Germany, she gained Australian nationality in June 2017.
Taylor Doyle is an Australian Paralympic athlete with an intellectual and physical disability. She was selected to represent Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics in athletics.
Lu Dong is a Chinese Paralympic swimmer, who won gold and silver medals at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Paralympics. She got 38.28 seconds on 50m butterfly. At the 2020 Summer Paralympics she won four gold medals with three world record. Lu lost both her arms after being hit by a motorist at age six.
Mao Jingdian is a Chinese para table tennis player.
