Great Britain has announced its biggest-ever Para canoe squad of nine athletes for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, including three reigning champions.
Led by three-time Paralympic medallist Emma Wiggs, the squad features Jeanette Chippington, Charlotte Henshaw, Laura Sugar, Rob Oliver, Dave Phillipson, Hope Gordon and debutants Jack Eyers and Ed Clifton.
Wiggs is a 12-time world champion and won KL2 gold at Rio 2016 before backing that up with a gold in the VL2 and a silver in the KL2 at Tokyo 2020.
Henshaw and Sugar, defending Paralympic champions in the KL2 and KL3, respectively, are also multiple-time world champions, making it an experienced line-up.
“I'm so happy to be selected to represent ParalympicsGB again,” Henshaw said.
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“I'm proud and grateful to be part of this amazing Para canoe team again and also the wider ParalympicsGB team. It's an exciting time in an athlete's life and even the fifth time it doesn't get old.
“I'm excited to see the growth of the sport. I'm massively proud of Jack (Eyers) and Ed (Clifton) for making their first Games team. We also have Jeanette (Chippington) going to her eighth so we have a huge amount of experience.
“I'm really excited to see what we can do as a team out there and hopefully continue our tradition of being a leading Para canoe nation.”
The 54-year-old Chippington is an inspiration as she prepares for her eighth Paralympics, having debuted at Seoul 1988 in Para swimming.
She won Vl2 bronze at Tokyo 2020 and has 14 Paralympic medals across both sports.
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Oliver won KL3 bronze in the Japanese capital three years ago and Phillipson, a world silver medallist, will reach Paris hoping to better his seventh-place finish in the KL2 from the previous edition of the Games.
Meanwhile, Gordon who became Britain’s first-ever female Para Nordic skier at Beijing 2022, will focus on the KL3 and VL3 at Paris 2024.
Eyers may be making his debut at the Paralympics, but he is a two-time world champion and will contest in the VL3 while Clifton will go to the French capital having switched from track and field to canoe in 2021 and will participate in the VL2.
Britain's Para canoe squad in full: Emma Wiggs, Jeanette Chippington, Charlotte Henshaw, Laura Sugar, Rob Oliver, Dave Phillipson, Hope Gordon, Jack Eyers and Ed Clifton.
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