Akeem Stew­art will be the lone ath­lete rep­re­sent­ing T&T at the Par­a­lympic Games in Paris, France, from Au­gust 28 to Sep­tem­ber 8.

The two-time medal­list at the Par­a­lympics will com­pete in one event, the men’s dis­cus F64 com­pe­ti­tion, a merged class at the Paris Games, which will fea­ture some 4,400 ath­letes from around the world. They will com­pete in 22 sports across var­i­ous icon­ic venues in Paris, in­clud­ing the Eif­fel Tow­er, the Chateau de Ver­sailles, and the Grand Palais.

This is the sec­ond Par­a­lympic Games for Stew­art of To­ba­go. At his first Par­a­lympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he clinched gold in the javelin F44 as well as sil­ver in the dis­cus F44.

T&T had no ath­letes at the virus-de­layed Tokyo 2020 Games, held in Japan in 2021. 

Stew­art en­ters his sec­ond Par­a­lympic Games with a wealth of suc­cess. He set new F43 world records in both the javelin and shot put on his way to vic­to­ry at the 2017 World Cham­pi­onships in Lon­don, Eng­land.

In the shot put event, Stew­art added a spec­tac­u­lar 4.87 me­tres to the record set by Ger­many’s Jorg Frischmann back in 1996, as he fin­ished more than three me­ters clear of his ri­vals with a best of 19.08 m.

In 2015, Stew­art be­came the first ath­lete from T&T to fin­ish at the top of the podi­um at the Para­pan Am Games. Stew­art won two gold medals at the event in Toron­to, Cana­da, set­ting what were then new world records in the javelin (53.36 m) and dis­cus (63.03 m) (F43). He went on to win dis­cus bronze at the Do­ha 2015 World Cham­pi­onships two months lat­er.

The Team TTO Par­a­lympic del­e­ga­tion al­so in­clud­ed Chef de Mis­sion Micky Ruben and Wade Franklin, the coach.

About the Paris Par­a­lympics

For the first time, the Par­a­lympic Open­ing Cer­e­mo­ny will be held out­side of a sta­di­um. Ath­letes will pa­rade through the icon­ic Av­enue des Champs-El­y­sees to the Place de la Con­corde. An ex­pect­ed 65,000 spec­ta­tors will get to wit­ness this his­toric mo­ment, which high­lights the host city’s com­mit­ment to ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty and in­clu­siv­i­ty.

The medals for the Paris 2024 Par­a­lympic Games fea­ture a piece of orig­i­nal iron from the Eif­fel Tow­er. De­signed to be dis­tin­guished by touch, they in­clude en­grav­ings and braille. The medals were cre­at­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the French jew­eller Chaumet, link­ing sport with French cul­tur­al her­itage.

The Paris 2024 Par­a­lympics will make his­to­ry as the first sum­mer games in France and have al­ready led to pos­i­tive changes in the host coun­try. For ex­am­ple, over­ground trans­porta­tion in Paris has be­come more ac­ces­si­ble.