After winning 13 gold medals during the Olympic Games in Paris earlier this month, African athletes have returned to represent the continent during the ongoing Paralympics. These incredible female athletes are redefining strength, speed, and determination. From the track to the field, these African powerhouses are set to make their mark and inspire the world!
Lauritta Onye – Nigeria
Standing at 4’1, Onye will compete in the F40 event, having benefitted from a 2012 tweak in the rules that separated athletes of a small stature into separate classifications to preserve a level playing field. She will also have her eyes on gold, having won the Rio de Janeiro Games event eight years ago, where her astonishing eight-metre throw established a new world record.
Christiana Alabi – Nigeria
Table tennis at the Paralympics represents one of Nigeria’s best opportunities for a medal, with talented players in the women’s competition hoping to see off the world’s best. Alabi, a silver medallist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games
She will compete in the women’s singles (Class 5) event with her husband, Kayode, a fellow tennis player whom she met at the 2022 games. Ranked among the best African players, Alabi has high expectations to win gold in Paris.
Faith Obazuaye – Nigeria
After an accident at seven years old, which resulted in the amputation of her left arm, Obazuaye was introduced to tennis and made her international debut for Nigeria at the 2011 African Para Championships in Ismail, Egypt. She was ranked as the fifth Paralympic table tennis player in the world. Obazuaye took part in the Women’s Class 10 at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Para Table Tennis Championships in Gold Coast, Australia, where she won the silver medal. She was the only Nigerian female to qualify for the 2020 Summer Paralympics. Obazuaye will compete in the Mixed Doubles event, facing Great Britain’s duo of Joshua Stacey and Bly Twomey.
Kat Swanepoel – South Africa
Another athlete to look out for is Swanepoel, a swimmer returning to the Paralympics after participating in Tokyo. While the South African athlete didn’t finish on the podium at her last outing, she’s going to Paris after winning two gold medals at the World Para Swimming Championships in Manchester, England, last year. At the same event, she also set an African record in the 150m individual medley.
Swanepoel was diagnosed with Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis, a condition where the body’s immune system attacks its central nervous system and impacts the brain’s ability to control the body. She competes despite being paralysed from the waist down and blind in one eye. Swanepoel has revealed that she’s been reclassified ahead of schedule and will compete in Paris against “people who have more physical function than I do.” Defined by her inspiring resilience, she is taking the challenge in stride as she hopes to win her first Paralympic medal.
Raoua Tlili – Tunisia
Competing in the F41 category for athletes with a more diminutive stature, Tilli is the greatest discus thrower and shot-putter the North African country has produced. She holds world records in both events and has won six gold medals across the four previous Paralympic Games, stretching back to Beijing in 2008.
Asmahane Boudjadar – Algeria
At her World Para Athletics Championships debut in 2015, Boudjadar placed last on the rankings list after throwing a no mark in the F33 shot put. She won gold at the Rio Paralympics a year later and broke her record by setting a new game record by throwing 12.82 metres. After winning consecutive world championship gold medals in 2017 and 2019, Boudjadar retained her Paralympic title in Tokyo. Now, she’s looking for the rare three-peat in Paris, a feat that will add to her gilded distinction as a perennial Para shot put champion.
Noemi Alphonse – Mauritius
Set to compete in the women’s T54 events for wheelchair track athletes with affected movement in the legs or without legs, Alphonse has raised the game for African athletes in recent years. Known as the ‘Lioness of the Tracks’, she became a world champion earlier this year when she clinched gold in the 100m at Japan’s Kobe Para Athletics Championship.
Alphonse has grown in prominence during the preceding years, and a year ago, she took silver in the 100m and bronze in the 400m at the same event in Paris, while also breaking records at a continental level.
Husnah Kukundakwe – Uganda
Kukundakwe is one of several competitors on this list, returning for more after winning bronze. She competed in Tokyo three years ago at age 14, is making her second appearance at the Paralympics, and will swim in three events in Paris.
Najwa Awane – Morocco
Awane lost in the early rounds of the Tokyo games, but she’s one of the wheelchair tennis players to watch heading into Paris. At last year’s African Para Athletics games, she won gold in both the women’s singles and doubles, strengthening her case as one of the best wheelchair tennis players on the continent.
