it will be with Paralympic German men in wheelchair basketball do not have an easy starting game. The team will take on the USA in Tokyo on Thursday night (from 2 p.m.) – one of the favorites for the gold medal. The defending champions of the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro finished second at the previous World Championships in Hamburg. The German team meets a total of five opponents in the group stage. Fourth place is enough for the quarter-finals.

In wheelchair basketball, people with different disabilities compete against each other. Each player is assigned a point value, which ranges up to 4.5 points depending on the stability of the torso. In the end there are five athletes on the field with a maximum of 14 points. There are also German women in Tokyo. At the opening ceremony on Tuesday, Captain Mareike Miller was accompanied by para-cyclist Michael Tauber as the German flag bearer. She describes wheelchair basketball as “a mix of bumper cars and a very tactical team sport”.

Women are also a tough group

The men’s team goes to the first game with honors. “With the United States, we initially caught the strongest opponent in the group,” says Thomas Boehme, who participated in the Paralympic Games in 2012 and 2016 and is considered one of the strongest players on the German team. “But we have prepared well, we want to start the tournament well and play a good game.” After that, it will be easy only to a limited extent: defending world champions Great Britain will be waiting on Friday. But the Germans were also able to explain recently: at the Nations Cup in Cologne in July they won against Turkey. After arriving in Tokyo, he already competed for a trial against the Japanese team. “It was a good start, we are satisfied with how it all went,” says national coach Nikolai Zeltinger.

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German women also held a tough group in Tokyo. “Holland, USA, England and Canada are strong teams,” Lisa Bergenthal told Tagespiegel. They will take on two of these four teams in the next few days. The game will start against Australia on Thursday night. In any case, they are highly motivated: they want to win a medal at the Games this year.

This text is part of this year’s Paralympic newspaper. You can find all the lessons in our digital series here.