Paralympics 2024: Badminton’s Rachel Choong to create history in Paris

In Tokyo, Bethell came away with silver in the SL3 singles and will be hoping to go one better in France, while Coombs took bronze in the SH6 singles.

Now the quartet are all aiming to win Britain’s first badminton Paralympics gold medal when the sport is staged from 29 August to 2 September at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena, with Choong already guaranteed her own place in the history books.

She is ranked fourth in the world in singles and with Shephard is world number one in the mixed doubles, which she says is her preferred event.

This year has already seen the pair earn victories in Spain, Bahrain and Egypt, and they also won gold at last year’s European Para Games in the Netherlands as they build their partnership.

“I’ve known Jack for a long time and we have always been mates and although it has been a steep learning curve, we are playing cleaner and smoother and constantly refining what we are doing,” Choong said.

“Even though we have won tournaments and have that momentum which we can hopefully carry on into the summer, we believe there is more to come.

“Our ceiling is still high and we have room for more growth, development and improvement.”