All eyes of sports fans will once again turn to Tokyo as the Paralympic Games begin on August 24 with the opening ceremony, while the closing ceremony is scheduled for September 5.

Around 4,400 competitors from nearly 160 countries and territories will be in Japan for the Paralympics,. Tokyo is the only city ever to host the Paralympic Games twice. At the 1964 Tokyo Paralympics, 378 athletes competed in nine sports at six venues.

India’s contingent for the Tokyo Paralympics is their largest ever in the Games history. The country’s focus will predominantly be on athletics, while badminton and shooting will also provide plenty of action.

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The campaign starts with table tennis on August 25 and 26. From August 27, things start to move up a gear with archers, powerlifters and swimmers in action. And once athletics starts on August 28, things go up a few notches.

And keep an eye on August 30, Indian sport fans. With the F46 and F64 javelin throw events for men scheduled for that day (featuring the likes of Devendra Jhajharia, Sundar Singh Gurjar, Sandeep and Sumit) it could potentially be a blockbuster for the Indian contingent.

India's medals at Paralympics (by sport)

Sport Gold Silver Bronze Total
Athletics 3 4 3 10
Powerlifting 0 0 1 1
Swimming 1 0 0 1
Total 4 4 4 12

Tokyo 2020 Paralympics: Complete list of athletes in India’s record contingent and their events

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History, India’s medals, new events and more – a brief guide to Paralympic Games

(Timings, where mentioned, are in IST. Scroll horizontally or swipe right to view all columns in the tables below)

Archery

Para archers are classified into one of two categories depending on their level of impairment: open or W1. As per World Archery, athletes in the open category usually have an impairment in either the top or bottom half or one side of their bodies. Athletes in the W1 category usually have an impairment in the top and bottom halves of their bodies, torso and at least three limbs.

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Indian archers are featuring in the open categories of men’s and women’s compound / recurve individual events. With only one female archer in contingent, India will be able to field an entry in compound mixed team (open) as well.

Indian contingent: Harvinder Singh, Vivek Chikara (recurve open men), Rakesh Kumar, Shyam Sundar Swami (compound open men), Jyoti Balyan (compound open women).

  • Friday 27 August – qualifying (5.30 am for women, 10.30 am for men)
  • Saturday 28 August – Compound open men’s elimination rounds
  • Sunday 29 August – Compound open women’s elimination rounds and mixed team finals
  • Monday 30 August – Compound women open eliminations and finals
  • Tuesday 31 August – Compound men open eliminations and finals
  • Thursday 2 September – Recurve women open eliminations and finals
  • Friday 3 September – Recurve men open eliminations and finals

Athletics

India’s medals at the Paralympic Games have historically come from athletics the most frequently. A whopping 10 out of the 12 medals in India’s Paralympics history have come from the track and field events and the expectations are once again high in Tokyo. Given the number of high-level performers in the Indian contingent, athletics will be at the center of attention.

Indian athletics schedule for Tokyo Paralympics

Event Name Schedule: 
Men's Shot Put - F55* Tek Chand 27 Aug, 1730 hrs
Men's Javelin Throw - F57 Ranjeet Bhati 28 Aug, 1530 hrs
Men's Discus Throw - F52 Vinod Kumar 29 Aug, 1554 hrs
Men's High Jump - T47 Nishad Kumar & Ram Pal 29 Aug, 1558 hrs
Men's Discus Throw - F56 Yogesh Kathuniya 30 Aug, 0605 hrs
Men's Javelin Throw - F46 Ajeet Singh, Sundar Singh Gurjar & Devendra Jhajharia 30 Aug, 0733 hrs
Men's Javelin Throw - F64 Sandeep Chaudhary & Sumit Antil 30 Aug, 1530 hrs
Women's 100m - T13 Simran Sharma 31 Aug, heats at 0700 hrs(Final: 31 Aug, 1640 hrs)
Men's High Jump - T63 Varun Singh Bhati, Sharad Kumar & Mariyappan Thangavelu 31 Aug, 1555 hrs
Men's Club Throw - F51 Dharambir & Amit Kumar Saroha 1 Sep, 1555 hrs
Men's Shot Put - F35 Arvind 2 Sep, 1628 hrs
Men's High Jump - T64 Praveen Kumar 3 Sep, 0732 hrs
Women's Club Throw - F51 Ekta Bhyan & Kashish Lakra 3 Sep, 1535 hrs
Men's Shot Put - F57 Soman Rana 3 Sep, 1540 hrs
Men's Javelin Throw - F41 Navdeep 4 Sep, 1540 hrs
Women's Club Throw - F51 Ekta Bhyan & Kashish Lakra  3 Sep, 1535 hrs
Reclassified from Javelin F54 to Shot Put F55 as per Tokyo 2020 official website

Badminton

Group play matches: September 1 to September 3

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Finals matches: September 3 to September 5

Event Name Schedule
Men's Singles SL3 Pramod Bhagat & Manoj Sarkar  Group play matches: Sep 1 to 3

SFs and medals: Sep 4
Men's Singles SL4 Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj & Tarun Dhillon Group play matches: Sep 2 & 3

SFs: Sep 4

Medal matches: Sep 5
Men's Singles SH6 Krishna Nagar Group play matches: Sep 3

SFs: Sep 4

Medal matches: Sep 5
Women's Singles SL4 Parul Parmar  Group play matches: Sep 2 & 3

SFs: Sep 4

Medal matches: Sep 5
Women's Singles SU5 Palak Kohli  Group play matches: Sep 1 to 3

SFs and medals: Sep 4
Women's Doubles SL3-SU5 Palak Kohli / Parul Parmar Group play matches: Sep 2 & 3

SFs and medals: Sep 4
Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Palak Kohli / Pramod Bhagat  Group play matches: Sep 2 & 3

SFs: Sep 4

Medal matches: Sep 5

Canoe Sprint

Canoeing is a relatively new sport at the Paralympics. Introduced at Rio 2016, it returns in Tokyo and India’s Prachi Yadav will be the first from the country to feature in the event.

Races are contested by two types of boat, kayak and va’a (which means ‘small boat’ in the Polynesian language). The kayak is propelled by a double-blade paddle, while the va’a is an outrigger canoe which has a second pontoon as a support float and is used with a single-blade paddle.

— via Tokyo2020 Paralympics
Event Name Schedule
Women's Va'a Single 200m - VL2 Prachi Yadav 2 Sep, 0610 hrs (Heats)

3 Sep, 0614 hrs (Semifinals)

3 Sep, 0730 hrs (FINAL)

Powerlifting

Event Name Schedule
Women's -50 kg Sakina Khatun 27 Aug, 0930 hrs
Men's -65 kg Jai Deep 27 Aug, 1500 hrs

Shooting

After just one shooter represented India at the Rio 2016 Paralympics, the contingent has significantly grown in size for Tokyo 2020.

Men’s event: Manish Narwal (P1, P4), Singhraj (P1, P4), Deepender Singh (P1), Deepak (R1, R6, R7), Sidhartha Babu (R3, R6), Swaroop Mahavir Unhalkar (R1), Akash (P3, P4), Rahul Jakhar (P3).

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Women’s event: Avani Lekhara (R2, R3, R6, R8), Rubina Francis (P2).

Note: The “mixed” events in Shooting Para Sport are events that feature men and women athletes competing together and are not team events.

Shooting schedule

Event Name Schedule
R2 - Women's 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 Avani Lekhara 30 Aug, 0500 hrs (Qual)

30 Aug, 0715 hrs (Final)
R1 - Men's 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 Deepak & Swaroop Mahavir Unhalkar 30 Aug, 0715 hrs (Qual)

30 Aug, 0945 hrs (Final)
P2 - Women's 10m Air Pistol SH1 Rubina Francis 31 Aug, 0600 hrs (Qual)

31 Aug, 0830 hrs (Final)
P1 - Men's 10m Air Pistol SH1 Manish Narwal, Deepender Singh & Singhraj 31 Aug, 0830 hrs (Qual)

31 Aug, 1100 hrs (Final)
R3 - Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 Sidhartha Babu, Deepak & Avani Lekhara 1 Sep, 0600 hrs (Qual)

1 Sep, 0800 hrs (Final)
P3 - Mixed 25m Pistol SH1 Akash & Rahul Jakhar 2 Sep, 0515 hrs (Qual, precision)

2 Sep, 0900 hrs (Qual, rapid)

2 Sep, 1200 hrs (Final)
R8 - Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1 Avani Lekhara 3 Sep, 0600 hrs (Qual)

3 Sep, 1000 hrs (Final)
R7 - Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions SH1 Deepak 3 Sep, 0600 hrs (Qual)

3 Sep, 1145 hrs (Final)
P4 - Mixed 50m Pistol SH1 Akash, Manish Narwal & Singhraj 4 Sep, 0600 hrs (Qual)

4 Sep, 0845 hrs (Final)
R6 - Mixed 50m Rifle Prone SH1 Sidhartha Babu, Deepak & Avani Lekhara 5 Sep, 0600 hrs (Qual)

5 Sep, 0800 hrs (Final)

Swimming

Event Name Schedule
Men's 200m Individual Medley - SM7 Suyash Narayan Jadhav  Update: Pulled out
Men's 100m Breaststroke - SB7 Suyash Narayan Jadhav  1 Sep, 1330 hrs (Final)
Men's 50m Butterfly - S7 Suyash Narayan Jadhav & Mukundan Niranjan 3 Sep, 0615 hrs (Heats) 

3 Sep, 1428 hrs (Final)

Table tennis

Event Name Schedule
Women's Team - Classes 4-5 Bhavinaben Patel & Sonalben Patel  31 Aug, 0800 hrs (QF)

01 Sep, 1600 hrs (SF)

03 Sep, 0800 hrs (Final)
Women's Singles - Class 3 Sonalben Patel  25 Aug, 0730 hrs (Group D vs CHN)

26 Aug, 1710 hrs (Group D vs KOR)

27, 28, 29 Aug: Knockout and medal rounds
Women's Singles - Class 4

Bhavinaben Patel  25 Aug, 0850 hrs (Group A vs CHN)

26 Aug, 0930 hrs (Group A vs GBR)

27, 28, 29 Aug: Knockout and medal rounds

Taekwondo

Event Name Schedule
Women K44 -49kg Aruna Tanwar 2 Sep, 0645 hrs onwards (R16)

2 Sep, 0845 hrs onwards (QF)

2 Sep, 1045 hrs onwards (Repechage)

2 Sep, 1430 hrs onwards (SFs & medal matches)

Detailed schedule for daily events will be published the day before. The Paralympic Games will be broadcast in India on Doordarshan and Eurosport India.