McFadden, Long among Paralympians to watch in Paris

PARIS — More than 4,000 athletes from around the world will compete in 22 sports during the Aug. 28-Sept. 8 Paralympics in Paris. Here are some of them:

America's veterans

Tatyana McFadden and Jessica Long are legends on the Paralympic stage.

McFadden, a wheelchair racer, and Long, a swimmer, will each make their sixth summer games appearance in France.

In 2014, McFadden even made a Winter Paralympics appearance in Sochi, and she dominated the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro with six medals, including four gold. She was honored that year by the U.S. Olympic Committee and won the Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award at the Rio Paralympics for outstanding performance and sportsmanship. She also was featured in "Rising Phoenix," a Netflix film about the Paralympic movement.

Competing in sprinting and various distance track events, McFadden also will help defend her gold medal in the 4 x100-meter universal relay. The event debuted in Tokyo, where she was a part of a world-record setting team.

Long, meanwhile, has earned a staggering 29 medals, including eight gold, in swimming events since she was 12 and the youngest American on the 2004 U.S. team in Athens. And she, too, has made a pop culture impact, as the subject of a 2021 Super Bowl commercial from Toyota.

After the Paralympic swimming trials in Minneapolis, Long was one of 21 female swimmers selected to the 2024 U.S. team. Leading up to Paris, she spent time training in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

Nick Mayhugh — United States

Soccer is his love, but sprinting made him a Paralympic gold medalist.

At 14 years old, Nick Mayhugh was diagnosed with cerebral palsy — a "dead spot" on the right side of his brain affects the mobility of the left side of his body.

Yet he never stopped competing. Mayhugh played Division I soccer at Radford University before representing the U.S. on the seven-a-side National Soccer Team in 2017. In 2019 he helped earn bronze at the Lima Parapan American Games with eight goals in six games.

However, since soccer is played between blind athletes at the Paralympics, Mayhugh started to train as a sprinter. He left Tokyo with three gold medals, one silver and the world records for his classification in the 100 meters and 200 meters.

Now he'll be back sprinting in the 100-meter and 400-meter races and Mayhugh also will try medaling in a new event for the first time — the long jump. The first time Mayhugh ever competed in the long jump in a major competition was at the Paralympic Trials in July. He won his classification with a jump of 6.19 meters (20 feet, 3.7 inches).

Valentina Petrillo — Italy

Italy's Valentina Petrillo will become the first transgender athlete to compete in the Paralympics.

In Paris, the 50-year-old runner will compete in the 200 meters and 400 meters in the women's T-12 classification for athletes with visual impairments. At 14, Petrillo was diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition.

Between 2015 and 2018, Petrillo won 11 national titles in the men's category before transitioning in 2019. Last year, Petrillo won two bronze medals at the World Para Athletics Championships.

She sees competing at the Paralympics as a symbol of inclusion in world sport.

Maximiliano Espinillo — Argentina

With a bronze in Rio and a silver in Tokyo, Maximiliano Espinillo looks to complete the set and earn a gold in Paris.

The Argentina soccer player has been blind since age 4 because of a virus resulting in retinal detachment.

Espinillo, Argentina's star striker, first competed in the 2015 Toronto Parapan American Games before making his Paralympic debut one year later in Rio.

In last summer's ISBA Men's Blind Football World Championship, Argentina defeated China after a penalty shootout in the championship match and Espinillo was awarded as the tournament's MVP.

The rivalry between Argentina and Brazil runs deep. Since blind football was introduced to the Paralympics in 2004, Brazil has won every gold medal and never lost a Paralympic match.

The two played in a group stage match at the Parapan American Games in Santiago last fall where Espinillo's lone goal was enough to defeat the sport's powerhouse. Ultimately, Brazil did win the title, and Argentina finished in third. But it was still a step in the right direction for the Argentines and potentially a sign of what's to come in Paris.

Alexis Hanquinquant — France

The Normandy native will defend his triathlon gold medal on home soil. Hanquinquant is the heavy favorite to finish with another gold medal. He ranks No. 1 in the World Triathlon Para Rankings for the PTS4 classification and has already won three triathlons this year.

The six-time European and world champion had his right leg amputated just below the knee in 2013 after a work accident about three years earlier where agricultural equipment crushed it.

Before the accident, Hanquinquant was a multisport athlete and he knew that wouldn't change. He wanted to challenge himself by training for the triathlon. In 2016, he won his first event, but it was after the qualification window for the Rio games passed, so his Paralympic debut had to wait.

Competing in Tokyo was a milestone moment but now, three years later, Hanquinquant will be one of France's flag bearers during the opening ceremony on Wednesday.

Sarah Storey — Britain

Since 1992, Sarah Storey has found glory at the Paralympics. The 2024 Games will be her ninth time representing Britain but only her fifth as a cyclist.

Storey first appeared on the Paralympic stage as a swimmer and won 16 medals over four Paralympic games, but an ear infection in 2005 forced her out of the water and onto a bike.

As a cyclist, she competes in time trials and road race events. Storey currently has 12 cycling gold medals to her name. Add in the five from swimming and those 17 golds and 28 medals overall and that makes her Britain's most decorated Paralympian.

In Tokyo, she struck gold in the pursuit, road race and road time trial events. She will defend all three titles in Paris.

Oksana Masters — United States

Oksana Masters has 17 medals across three Paralympic sports: Nordic skiing, rowing and cycling.

Adopted from an orphanage in Ukraine when she was 7, Masters was born with congenital disabilities because of radiation poisoning from the Chernobyl nuclear accident. When she was 14, her legs were amputated above her knees.

Sports became a way to showcase her power and strength. The 2012 London Paralympics were Masters' first time representing the United States — Paris will mark her seventh Paralympics. She's also competed in every winter games since 2014 as a Nordic skier.

In London, Masters took home a bronze medal as a rower, but hasn't competed in rowing since. While rehabbing a back injury she turned to cycling and hasn't looked back.

In her first games as a cyclist in Rio, Masters didn't reach the podium. But in Tokyo, she brought home two gold medals in the time trial and road race events that she will defend in Paris.

Lin Suiling — China

Lin Suiling has been on China's wheelchair basketball team since 2016, and in 2017 she was named the captain. Rio was Lin's first Paralympic games and China failed to reach the podium.

In Tokyo, however, China earned silver after falling to the Netherlands 50-31 in the gold medal game. However, it was China's first ever medal in the sport. Lin is one of the few returners from that team striving for gold in Paris.

Leading up to the Paralympics, China has been dominating tournaments. In January's Asia-Oceania Wheelchair Basketball Championship, it won all six games for the title. The championship victory directly qualified the team for Paris and Lin was named to the All-Star team as the tournament's most valuable player.

The Netherlands still poses a strong threat to China. In the 2022 world championships, the Dutch beat out Lin and her team once again, although it was the best China has ever performed in that tournament.

Lin and her teammates are looking to take the final step to gold, and Paris might be the stage where it happens.

Amanda Vogt is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.