Get to know our para rowers competing at the Paralympic Games

It is the final hours before the start of the para rowing regatta at the Sea Forest Waterway for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Athletes from around the world have arrived in Tokyo and using this time to acclimatise to the weather before racing gets started.

For para rowing, it is the fourth time at the Paralympic Games and 25 nations have qualified to compete. This narrowed down from 46 countries attempting to qualify. Brazil, Ukraine and the United States have qualified in all four boat categories. Spain, who did not qualify any boats in 2016, has two boats competing in Tokyo. Host nation Japan has two boats qualified.

As well as coming from around the world, the athletes come from all walks of life and age groups. At the young end of the age scale is Yui Kimuara of Japan and Dariia Kotyk of Ukraine. Both athletes are 17 years old and competing in their respective country’s PR3Mix4+. Kotyk is the more experienced of the two with a second at the 2020 European Rowing Championships followed by a third at the 2021 European Rowing Championships. For the older end of the age range, the very accomplished Sylvia Pille-Steppat of Germany goes to Tokyo as a 53-year-old. She is competing in the PR1W1x. Also 53 is Italy’s Gian Filippo who will race in the PR2Mix2x.

One of the top medal contenders for a Paralympic title is Erik Horrie of Australia. When not training, Horrie is a youth worker. Kenya’s Asiya Sururu is at her first Paralympic Games and normally works as a tennis coach and early childhood education teacher. The very fast Annika van der Meer of the Netherlands is a doctor. Brazil’s Rene Pereira is also a doctor while Pille-Steppat is an architect.

Some Paralympic athletes have been known to cross over into other sports or compete in more than one sport at the same Games. Meet Blake Haxton of the United States. He’s racing in the PR1M1x and when the para rowing is done, Haxton will stay on at the regatta venue, the Sea Forest Waterway, to compete in sprint canoe.

Favourite in the PR1W1x and current World Champion, Birgit Skarstein of Norway has raced at the winter Paralympic Games in cross country skiing. Skarstein also has dancing talents, appearing in Norway’s television series, ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ Horrie used to play wheelchair basketball while Sururu is a wheelchair tennis doubles player.

Racing at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games starts on Friday 27 August. The first race is at 9:30am (Tokyo time).