Paris will welcome around 4,500 athletes who will take part in the first Summer Paralympic Games to be held in France.

Competitors will compete in 22 sports over the 11 days of competition, with a total of 549 gold medals up for grabs.

As usual, the Games will feature experienced international stars looking to enhance their reputation, as well as newcomers looking to make their mark.

BBC Sport spotlights some of the international athletes aiming to shine on the biggest stage on Thursday 29 August.

Simone Barlaam (Italy) – Para-swimming

Barlaam has played a key role in Italy’s rise as a Paralympic powerhouse in the swimming pool.

The 24-year-old from Milan, who was born with one leg shorter than the other due to a hip problem, spent time in Paris as a child, where he underwent a number of operations.

He started competitive swimming at the age of 14 and made his international debut at the 2017 World Championships in Mexico. Since then he has become a top athlete in the S9 category.

Barlaam says he struggled at his first Paralympic Games in Tokyo, where he won gold, two silvers and one bronze. But after winning six golds in six events at last year’s World Championships in Manchester, he comes to Paris as the favourite to expand his field.

S9 400m freestyle: Thursday, August 29; S9 50m freestyle Monday September 2nd; S9 100m backstroke: Tuesday, September 3; S9 100m butterfly: Friday September 6th; Mixed 4x100m Freestyle 34 points relay: Saturday September 7th

Diede de Groot (Netherlands) – Wheelchair tennis

Dutch women have dominated wheelchair tennis for years and De Groot is the latest star.

The 27-year-old is the world number one in both singles and doubles and won gold in both events in Tokyo, the latter together with Aniek van Koot.

Born with one right leg shorter than the other, she started playing wheelchair tennis at age seven and has dominated the sport since her breakthrough in 2017.

She is the first player – with or without a disability – to win three consecutive Grand Slams. Her many titles include five singles titles at Roland Garros and six doubles titles at Roland Garros, where the Paralympic wheelchair tennis tournaments are held.

Earlier this year, she was named Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability, succeeding her compatriot Esther Vergeer, who won the title in 2002 and 2008.

Women’s doubles final: Thursday, September 5; Women’s Singles Final: Friday, September 6th.

Marcel Hug (Switzerland) – Para-athletics

Hug’s silver helmet earned him the nickname Silver Bullet, but gold is no stranger to him. As one of the stars of his sport, the 38-year-old hopes to add to his six Paralympic titles at the Stade de France.

Hug was the second-best player behind Britain’s David Weir at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, but his breakthrough came four years later in Rio.

The Swiss won his first gold in Rio in the T54 800m, after which he won another in the marathon.

In Tokyo he won a series of victories in the 800 meters, 1500 meters, 5000 meters and the marathon. Last year he won three more gold medals on the track in Paris.

Off the track, Hug is also a star on the road, having claimed multiple victories in the major city marathons of London, New York, Boston, Chicago and Berlin.

T54 5,000m: Saturday August 31st; T54 1500m: Tuesday, September 3; T54 800m: Thursday, September 5; T54 Marathon: Sunday, September 8th.

Oksana Masters (United States) – Para-cycling

Masters has overcome many traumas to become a star at the Summer and Winter Paralympics.

She was born in Ukraine in 1989 with multiple birth defects, three years after the Chernobyl disaster. After being abandoned by her biological parents, she grew up in an orphanage where she was regularly beaten and abused.

At the age of seven, she was adopted by the American woman Gay Masters. Eventually, both legs were amputated above the knee and she had surgery on her hands.

After starting her athletic career as a rower and competing at the London 2012 Olympic Games, where she won bronze, she switched to paracycling and cross-country skiing.

She won two golds at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, followed by two golds on the road in Japan, and three more golds at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, in cross-country and biathlon.

Last year she released her autobiography The Hard Parts, in which she tells her impressive story.

H4-5 time trial: Wednesday September 4th; H5 road race: Thursday September 5th

Markus Rehm (Germany) – Para-athletics

The man known as the Blade Jumper is the big favourite to win his fourth Paralympic long jump title in Paris.

Rehm, who lost his right leg below the knee in a wakeboarding accident in 2003 and jumps with a prosthetic blade, has been a star of para-athletics since his international debut at the 2011 World Championships in New Zealand and continues to push the boundaries of his T64 event.

His current world record is 8.72 metres – the ninth-longest jump of all time. His best performance in 2024 is 8.44 metres – a distance that would have won him silver at the Paris Olympics and gold at the previous four Games.

However, he is not allowed to participate in the Olympic Games because it has been determined that jumping from his prosthesis gives him an advantage over people who have not undergone an amputation.

The Olympics’ loss is the Paralympic’s gain and Rehm in full flight is a sight to behold.

T64 long jump: Wednesday September 4th

Sheetal Devi (India) – Para Archery

Devi is only 17 years old, making her one of the youngest competitors in both archery and the Games in general.

The Indian woman was born with a condition called phocomelia and is missing her upper limbs.

However, she shoots arrows with her feet and is the first and only female para-archer to compete internationally without weapons.

Three years ago she discovered archery and although coaches initially advised her to use a prosthesis, she was inspired by American Matt Stutzman, the 2012 Paralympic silver medalist and 2022 world champion, who was also born without arms.

Her first major event was at the 2022 Asian Para Games, where she won individual women’s compound gold and mixed doubles gold. She also took silver in the women’s doubles before claiming individual world silver last year and going in as world number one.

Individual women’s course: Saturday August 31st; Mixed team complex: Monday September 2nd

Alexis Hanquinquant (France) – Para-triathlon

The 38-year-old Norman is one of the biggest French contenders for gold at the Games.

Hanquinquant is the reigning Paralympic champion in the PTS4 category and has been the dominant figure in the division since his international debut in June 2016. He is undefeated since his victory in Tokyo.

He was an avid basketball player and martial arts practitioner, but in 2010 he had an industrial accident and three years later his leg was amputated below the knee.

His breakthrough in Parasport came too late for Rio, but in Tokyo he was a multiple world champion and took gold with a lead of almost three minutes over his nearest rival.

Together with para-athlete Nantenin Keita, the father of two was chosen by his teammates to carry the French flag at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris.

PTS4 Triathlon for Men: Sunday, September 1st.

Morgan Stickney (United States) – Para-swimming

Stickney’s first athletic dream was to compete in the Olympics. At 15, she was ranked in the top 20 in the country until she broke bones in her left foot, which was eventually amputated in May 2018 due to pain and complications.

That was the beginning of her medical challenges, which led to her being diagnosed with a rare vascular disease that left insufficient blood flowing to her limbs.

Stickney underwent a second below-the-knee amputation in 2019 and said she would never swim again, but returned to the pool during the Covid pandemic and fell in love with the sport again, going on to win two golds in Tokyo – her first international para-swimming event.

Since then the condition has worsened and she has lost more and more legs and her whole body is affected.

In preparation for the Games, Stickney, now 27, has had to spend at least 10 days a month in a Boston hospital for treatment, but he is determined to shine on the big stage again.

S7 400m freestyle: Monday September 2nd; S7 100m freestyle: Wednesday September 4th