Four athletes will represent Great Britain in wheelchair fencing at #Paris2024.
The GBR wheelchair fencing team for the Paralympics in Paris this summer has finally been announced after the completion of the selection process and ratification by ParalympicGB.
Dimitri Coutya, Piers Gilliver, Gemma Collis, and Oliver Lam-Watson will represent GBR at the competition, to be held in the Grand Palais from the 3rd – 7th September 2024.
All are seasoned athletes with many World Cup and World Championship medals between them, and the same quartet also represented GBR at the Paralympics in Tokyo held in 2021.
Dimitri Coutya will compete in all three individual weapons in Category B – Epee, Foil and Sabre – starting on the 3rd September.
It will be Dimitri’s third Paralympics after Rio and Tokyo. In Tokyo he took four medals across individual and team competitions, and he goes into Paris as the world number one in both Epee and Foil.
Piers Gilliver will compete in both Sabre and Epee in Category A, starting on the 3rd September.
He is competing at his third Paralympics after Rio and Tokyo, and goes in ranked as world number one in both weapons. Piers is the reigning individual Paralympic champion in Epee, winning gold in Tokyo in 2021.
Oliver Lam-Watson will compete in Epee and Foil in Category A, starting on the 4th September.
Paris will be his second Paralympics, after competing in Tokyo where he took two team medals.
Gemma Collis will compete in Epee and Sabre in Category A, starting on the 3rd September.
It will be her fourth Paralympics after competing in London, Rio and Tokyo.
In addition, Piers, Oliver and Dimitri will compete in the Men’s Team Foil and Epee competitions on the 5th and 7th September.
Penny Briscoe, chef de mission at ParalympicsGB said: “Three years ago at the rescheduled Tokyo Games our Paralympic wheelchair fencing squad really made the nation proud. Piers, Dimitri, Oliver and Gemma have already shown what they are capable of this year, with impressive performances at World Cup events and on the European stage, and I can’t wait to see what they can achieve in Paris this summer.”
British Fencing wishes all athletes the very best of luck. The full schedule for all sports is available here: Paralympic Competition Schedule
Images courtesy of ParalympicsGB.
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