Paris city of France will host the 17th edition of Paralympic Games scheduled for 2024.

The curtain fell on the 16th Paralympic Games at the Olympic Stadium on 5 September, in Tokyo Japan.

The Governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike passed the Paralympic flag to International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons, who then passed it to the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo. The orange Paralympic flame turned purple — the colour of WeThe15.

The entire Stadium was alight with the glow of a sunset, which went smaller and smaller, fading into the Cauldron. The Paralympic Flame was extinguished like the setting sun.

“These Games helped fulfill the dreams of many here in Tokyo and fuelled the ambitions of many more watching at home,” said Parsons.

“The Paralympic Movement has a message for you: Tokyo ga daisuki desu, We love you Tokyo; Nihon ga daisuki desu, we love you Japan! Immense gratitude to all the people that delivered these Games.”

And finally, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games came to a close. The spirit of the Games will be carried now in the 2024 Games.

The just concluded Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics show how Japan made the world sit back and take notice of their organisational capabilities and more importantly, their will and determination to keep their promise, made eight years ago, of delivering a mega event.

Angelica Espinoza was a young 15-year-old schoolgirl when she started following the London 2012 Paralympic Games on TV from her home city of Lima, Peru.

“That is when I got to know about the Paralympic Movement and when I promised myself that I had to be there one day,” she recalled.

Little did she know back then that nine years later she would become taekwondo’s first Paralympic champion ever and Peru’s first gold medallist in over two decades.

“From that first time I watched Para sport until now, I made everything I could to fulfil my dream. I fell in love with taekwondo, which I realised I was good at, and knew I had chances of improving and hopefully reaching the Paralympics one day.”

Fast-forward eight years and Espinoza was arriving in Tokyo as one of the heavy favourites for gold in the women’s K44 -49kg event.

At her home Parapan American Games in Lima in 2019, she had provided the hosts with one of the event’s enduring memories by winning gold. She followed that up with multiple titles at five of the six competitions she took part in prior to Tokyo 2020.

Not even the pandemic made her lose focus on her big goal. “I even feel the pandemic gave me this opportunity to prepare myself for an extra year. I trained hard over the last month and it was my dream to be here today standing on that podium and listening to the national anthem.”

In a thrilling final, she beat Turkey’s world No.2 Meryem Cavdar, therefore achieving Peru’s first Paralympic title in 21 years and first medal in 17.

“It is really exciting for me; all three combats were really tough and I feel very proud with the result, being the first taekwondo Paralympic champion feels great.”

Espinoza is confident her victory will help raise further awareness of Para sports in her country. “There will be more support and visibility,” she said.

Looking ahead to her next competitions, including the Santiago 2023 Parapan Ams and the Paris 2024 Paralympics, the 23-year-old does not want to want to lose her place atop of the podium. “I want to keep winning medals.”

She also has a final message for all her followers in Peru and around the world: “I want to tell them to strive and work hard to achieve what they want. Dreams do come true.”

Rwanda is scheduled to takeon Japan on Friday evening in the womens sitting volleyball at the ongoing Paralympics in Tokyo.

The World ParaVolley kicked off on August 24 and will conclude on September 5 according to the fixture list for both the men’s and women’s competitions at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

Team Rwanda is drawn from Group B alongside USA, China, Russia. Meanwhile Group A includes; Japan, Canada, Brazil and Italy.

Team Rwanda are the African champions in the women’s sitting volleyball.

Rwanda is the first Sub-Saharan women’s team in history, in any sport, to compete at the Paralympic Games at Rio 2016.

Meanwhile, with the U.S. leading 24-22 and about to serve for match point in a must-win women’s sitting volleyball encounter Wednesday, the Russian Paralympic Committee called a time out.

U.S. coach Bill Hamiter took the occasion to offer his team a little advice.

“Let your training do the work,” Hamiter told his players during the break.

The Americans returned to the court at Makuhari Messe Hall, and Heather Erickson immediately served for the deciding point that gave the U.S. a 3-0 victory over the RPC (25-19, 25-15, 25-22) and propelled the defending Paralympic gold medalists into the semifinals.

The U.S., which scored the final five points of the third set, will face Brazil, a 3-1 winner over Italy, in the first semifinal on Friday. China and Canada will square off in the other semifinal.

“We know them pretty well,” said Hamiter of Brazil. “Of course, we’ll start looking at the video that we have, breaking things down, start our preparations tonight, actually, so we can go through our practice plans tomorrow.”

The U.S. and the RPC had entered the match with identical 1-1 records in Pool B preliminary round play. They had each defeated Rwanda in straight sets but lost 3-0 decisions to China. The U.S. was coming off the loss to China.

“We sided out way better today than we did against China,” Hamiter said. “I don’t know that we attacked better. I think it was maybe more well-timed plays, some things like that.

“Our vision of the court was way better today — seeing blocks, seeing what’s open, making smart shots, limiting our errors — all those little things that matter.”

After the Americans won the first two sets with relative ease, the RPC fought back to lead most of the way in the third set and threatened to extend the match.

“I don’t know if they were feeling as much pressure as I was,” Hamiter said of his players. “Every one of the games that I’ve coached, we’ve always had to win one of those matches to make it into the medal rounds. So, we’re used to it, but it’s always one of those things where you sweat it out.

“I liked the first two sets, and then that third set (we) had to struggle a little bit, but then (had) a great comeback.”

The U.S. battled back and eventually tied it at 20-20 on a Lora Webster serve. The RPC scored the next two to go up 22-20, but then the Americans went on their closing spurt to put away the match.

“What we did today directly built off of what we tried to work on yesterday,” Webster said. “In the third set, we came out behind, and we had to dig ourselves out of a hole, and there was no frantic energy.

“Everybody was calm. We all knew what we had to do. And that just goes to show what we worked on yesterday really showed up on the court, and I’m just excited by what we did.”

According to Webster, as the Americans head into the semifinals, they will focus on what they can control on their side of the net.

“People are going to falter, but it’s a team sport for a reason,” Webster said. “So, we’ve got to figure out how to pick each other up, and we did that here. And as long as we continue to do that, then we’ll be on the right trajectory going into the semifinals and, hopefully, into the finals.”