Ambitious Team Ireland ready for Paralympic stage

While the dust is still settling on a successful Olympic Games, the indications are that Paris is ready to fully embrace the 17th edition of the summer Paralympics.

After sluggish ticket sales up to last month, many of the venues are now sold out, with the buy-in very much local.

Of the more than 1.75 million tickets already sold ahead of Wednesday's opening ceremony, 92% of the purchases were French, with buyers from the Ile-de-France region around Paris taking the lion's share accounting for 73%.

It highlights a remarkable journey for the Games since Dr Ludwig Guttmann first created the Stoke Mandeville Games in 1948 for wheelchair-bound war returnees, where eight sports were on show, compared to the 22 ready to be showcased in the French capital.

Even the short-term progress is noteworthy; RTÉ will broadcast 104 hours of TV coverage, up from five hours at London 2012.

Team Ireland's 35 athletes will be among the 4,400 athletes from 180 national Paralympic committees expected to compete, in addition to a Refugee Paralympic team and Neutral Paralympic athletes.

Ireland has a rich history in the Games, one of just 23 countries that participated in the first Paralympics in Rome in 1960, appearing in every edition since.

Joan Horan holds the distinction of claiming our first Paralympic medals – gold in archery and silver in swimming – from those inaugural Games 64 years ago, while swimmer Gary O’Reilly claimed our seventh and final medal in Tokyo, bringing our overall total to 230.

And what of our chances of increasing that number in Paris?

The soundings from those close to the team suggest that anything up to 10 medals is a realistic ambition, with the strongest contenders coming in the pool, road and track cycling, triathlon and