Prime Minister Modi to interact with Paralympics-bound athletes on August 17

India’s athletes competing at the Tokyo Paralympics will interact with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 17, through a video conference. The virtual interaction will take place at 11 am.

The Prime Minister had earlier interacted with the Tokyo Olympics-bound athletes before they embarked on their journey to the quadrennial event.

The Tokyo Paralympics will be held from August 24 to September 5. India will start their campaign on August 25 with Madhubai Patel and Bhavina Patel at table tennis events.

Read: Paralympics 2021: Full list of Indians in action, schedule & timings (IST)

India has sent a record 54 para-athletes competing in nine disciplines - Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Shooting, Table Tennis, Paracanoeing, Swimming, Powerlifting and Taekwondo - to the Tokyo Paralympics.

Thangavelu Mariyappan, the Rio 2016 gold medal winner in the high jump, will be the flag bearer for India. Gursharan Singh is the Chef de Mission of the Indian team at the Tokyo Paralympics.

Devendra Jhajharia is the most successful #IND athlete at the #Paralympics 🥇The 40-year-old javelin thrower is chasing his third gold medal at #Tokyo2020 🙌Read his inspiring story here 👇https://t.co/d0iYWDbFWJ

— #Tokyo2020 for India (@Tokyo2020hi) August 12, 2021

Paralympics winners to be included in sports awards

The medal winners at the Tokyo Paralympics will also be rewarded in the National Sports Awards this year. This was confirmed by the Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur earlier. It will serve as a major boost to their confidence.

In July, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) had planned to postpone the national awards for a couple of weeks to include possible Olympic medalists from the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

Harvinder Singh’s journey started after watching archery matches from the London Olympics on TV.He is now ready to hit the bulls eye at the #Tokyo2020 Paralympics. #Cheer4India #Praise4Para@PMOIndia @ianuragthakur @NisithPramanik @DeepaAthlete @ParalympicIndia pic.twitter.com/O8SjarpBiI

— SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) August 9, 2021

Anurag Thakur said they are expecting a good show in the upcoming Paralympics as well.

Prime Minister Modi also discussed the inspirational journeys of some of the athletes on Mann Ki Baat, in addition to urging the nation to come forward and wholeheartedly support them.

Indian para-athletes have taken part in every Paralympic Games since the 1984 edition. India will be looking to emulate their previous best performance at the Paralympic Games when they won two golds, one silver and one bronze at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro edition.