Wheelchair tennis player Lucy Shuker and wheelchair basketball player Terry Bywater have been selected as ParalympicsGB’s flagbearers for the opening ceremony of Paris 2024.

Shuker, from Fleet, Hampshire, made history alongside her former doubles partner Jordanne Whiley when they became the first women to win a medal for Great Britain in their sport by claiming bronze at London 2012.

The pair also achieved third place on the podium at Rio 2016 before securing silver at the delayed Tokyo Games three years ago.

Great Britain's Terry Bywater and Lucy Shuker during the ParalympicsGB flagbearer announcement at the Arc de Triomphe ahead of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games. Great Britain's Terry Bywater and Lucy Shuker during the ParalympicsGB flagbearer announcement at the Arc de Triomphe ahead of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games. (Image: Adam Davy)

Terry Bywater is a four-time bronze medallist – in 2004, 2008, 2016 and 2021 – and preparing to compete at the seventh Games of his career following his debut at Sydney in 2000.

The opening ceremony of Paris’ maiden Paralympic Games takes place on Wednesday evening.

Up to 4,400 athletes are due to parade along the Champs-Elysees to Place de Concorde in front of an estimated 65,000 spectators.

Competition starts on Thursday, with medals up for grabs in track cycling, swimming, taekwondo and table tennis, and continues until the closing ceremony on Sunday, September 8.

Following Whiley’s retirement, Shuker will partner 21-year-old Games newcomer Abbie Breakwell in the French capital – beginning on Friday at Roland Garros – and will also enter the women’s singles draw.

ParalympicsGB Tennis athletes, Lucy Shuker and Jordanne Whiley win silver in the Women's Doubles Gold Medal Match event on during day eleven of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in Japan. ParalympicsGB Tennis athletes, Lucy Shuker and Jordanne Whiley win silver in the Women's Doubles Gold Medal Match event on during day eleven of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in Japan. (Image: imagecommsralympicsGB/PA)

The 44-year-old was paralysed from the chest down following a motorbike crash in 2001 and made her Paralympic debut seven years later in Beijing.

“To have that honour to lead ParalympicsGB out is incredible and something that I never thought I would do,” she said.

“To qualify for my first Paralympics in Beijing was an achievement in itself, but to come to my fifth Paralympics and now be a flagbearer is a real dream come true.

“Leading the parade down the Champs-Elysees and Place de la Concorde is going to be really different – eyes will be on me, but also the rest of ParalympicsGB.

“We are a big team and to be at the front of that is insane, incredible and an honour.”

Games veterans Shuker and Bywater were selected to be flagbearers following an athlete vote among GB’s 215-strong squad.

Swimmer Ellie Simmonds and archer John Stubbs performed the roles at Tokyo 2020 before boccia champion David Smith took on the responsibility for the closing ceremony.