At 29, Brazilian Bruna Alexandre is only the seventh athlete to compete in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The first Paralympic Games were organized in 1948 by the British doctor Ludwig Guttmann near London. Organized around the Stoke Mandeville hospital near London, they were conceived with the idea of allowing combatants wounded during the Second World War to practice a sporting competition. They are considered to be the first true Paralympic Games in the sense of an international competition like those of Rome in 1960 for the Summer Games, and those of 1976 for the Winter Games.
For the first time, the Olympic and Paralympic Games are being organized by the same institution for the Paris Games this year. In this desire to bring the two events together, the Paris 2024 COJOP has set up a single communication, just like the French team, which has decided to merge the French Olympic and Paralympic teams, for the first time for these Paris Games, in order to facilitate exchanges between athletes from the two competitions.
In history, few athletes have competed in both the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games. The first to compete in both competitions at the same time in the same Olympics was the Italian Paola Fantato, who in 1996 competed in the archery event at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
In table tennis, Polish Natalia Partyka also qualified in 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2021. This year in Paris, another table tennis player is participating in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This is the Brazilian Bruna Alexandre. World number three in her Paralympic class, she was also selected individually by the Brazilian federation for the able-bodied event. Bruna Alexandre had an arm amputated during her childhood, and arrives in Paris with strong ambitions.
“My dream at the Olympics is to get past the first round and, who knows, the second. That’s my Olympic dream. And in the Paralympics, I have the dream of winning the individual gold medal.”