with Ten medals. That’s the ambitious goal set by the Belgian delegation to the Paralympic Games (August 25 to september 6, 2020), that is, three weeks of big brother, the summer Olympics in Tokyo will be organized. In order to do this, dry-cleaning, the Belgian paralympiërs this week in the most prestigious sports of the country.

The red jackets with “Team Belgium” in white letters on the back, in the term widely used in the L’institut national du sport, de l’expertise et de la performance (or INSEP) in Paris, france. This impressive sports facility on 28 acres in the forest of Vincennes, lead of the French, been around since 1975, their greatest champions are on it. Tennis player Amélie Mauresmo, basketball player, Tony Parker, and countless olympic medal winners presented here as the basis for their success. And this week, 41 of the Belgian paralympiërs their first steps into the world of the last straight line in the direction of Tokyo by the year 2020. Of a portfolio of about ten months old, our country is supposed to represent, in Tokyo, japan.

“We are aiming, eventually, at ten paralympic medals and is one of five different team,” says head of the delegation Olek Kazimirowski. “Rio won, and we still have eleven medals, but they were also exceptional Games. We want to be ambitious, but also realistic. Ten medals will be feasible, and thus we would be in the top forty of the landenranglijst sit down. By Florian Van Acker (table tennis), Lauren’s Here. (ping-pong), and Peter Genyn (track and field), and True Hordies (paracycling), we have four world champions in the house. They are the main contenders for the gold medal.”

the Swimmer, Islam, Dokaev Photo: BELGA

In the French capital for the paralympic team together one last time before the Belgian wheelchair-athletes-again, all of them swarming to get an individual for you to prepare Tokyo, japan. “This is a wonderful place to work out. All of the top sports facility in a single entity: a vijftigmeterbad, a full two – and outdooratletiekpiste, a cycling track, several gymnasiums, and a sportrestaurant and property. And for our athletes to come in here and everywhere, the French champions are up against. That is really inspirational.”

the head of the Delegation Olek Kazimirowski Image: MATCH

the Fear of empty football stadiums in Tokyo for three weeks after the Olympic Games, has Kazimirowski’s not. “The stadium will be volzitten because the tickets are already almost sold out. The enthusiasm is great. The only problem is the heat and the humidity, because it will be even bigger than the one in Rio.”

training with top riders, team spirit and Marieke Vervoort

“I can’t train with the able-bodied national team of the country. It’s not a problem for me, and that is a possibility, I was not in Belgium,” says tafeltennisser He He, at only nineteen years, one of the main representatives of the Belgian paralympic team. “In Tokyo, everyone will expect me again to the gold pack because I’m in Rio at the age of sixteen, already an olympic champion. But it’s not that simple. But, of course, that’s the goal.”

in table Tennis, He He the Photo: THERE is

another man with a medal of intentions, it is rolstoeltennisser and former Masters winner: Joachim Gerard (31). “Tokyo will be my fourth Olympic Games. So, I’m one of the ouderdomsdekens in the selection process. In this stage, it is important to keep the team spirit going. This is the only week of the Games in which the athletes are able to get to know. I try to give the youth advice, and team activities outside of the training sessions, I try to be in the mood to spend.”

Joachim Gerard (Photo: BELGA

An important topic of discussion at the stage it was, of course, the death of Mary Vervoort, for many years the leader of the Belgian mindervalidensport. “There is a lot of about that She was talking,” says the rider Diederick Schelfhout (33 years old). “I have got to know well, and we had a lot of contact. Of course she dismissed the pain, but as strange as it may sound, but it was a very happy moment in time. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s very unfortunate that they are no longer there, but on the other hand, I am glad that she is freed from her suffering. She has a never-ending struggle against pain, was conducted. She is a Belgian mindervalidensport on the map. We are hoping that there will be a number of its steps may occur. Myself, I hope to do the same. Or I can go to Tokyo, I don’t know. In the villages of the Belgian team are very, very expensive. However, the mood is very good, much better than in the run-up to Rio, when there was a lot more ellebogenwerk between the Belgian and the athletes themselves. The atmosphere is a lot better now, all the fighting, of course, to his place.”

Diederick Schelfhout Image: MATCH Sagittarius, Piotr Van Montagu Photo: BELGA, the Athlete Was Moulart (Photo: BELGA Photo: BELGA Photo: BELGA Photo: BELGA Photo: BELGA Photo: BELGA Photo: BELGA Photo: BELGA Photo: BELGA Photo: BELGA

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