The 2023 Para Athletics World Championships get under way in Paris on Saturday.

As well as a focus on performances and medals, qualification places for the Paris Paralympics are at stake with the top four athletes in each event across the programme securing a slot for their country.

BBC Sport looks at some of the athletes who will be hoping to impress on the big stage.

Marcel Hug (Switzerland) – T54 800, 1500 and 5000m

The man known as ‘The Silver Bullet’ because of the colour of his helmet will be aiming to add to his multiple world titles in the T54 wheelchair racing category.

Hug played second fiddle to Britain’s David Weir at London 2012 but since then has become the dominant figure in the class, winning two golds in Rio before claiming four more in Tokyo.

Already this year, the 37-year-old has won the Boston and London Marathons and has also set new world records in the three distances which he will compete over in Paris.

Gavin Drysdale (Great Britain) – T72 100m

Britain’s first gold medal in Paris could come on Sunday’s first main day of competition in the Frame Running events.

Formerly known as RaceRunning, the discipline sees athletes who have severe co-ordination impairments run with the support of a three-wheeled frame.

Scotland’s Drysdale won gold in the men’s event at the last Worlds in Dubai in 2019 and the 22-year-old European champion, who says the sport gives him freedom, will be aiming to retain his title.

The sport was controversially excluded from the programme for Paris 2024 but Drysdale and GB team-mate Rafi Solaiman will be hoping to show that the discipline has a key part to play in the Paralympic movement.

Lisa Adams (New Zealand) – F37 shot put

Sporting prowess is something that Lisa Adams knows all about.

The 32-year-old is the younger sister of double Olympic shot put champion Valerie Adams, who is also her coach, and her brother Steven plays in the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies

Lisa was diagnosed with a form of cerebral palsy as a youngster but after spells playing netball, basketball and rugby and only started her Para-athletics career in 2018.

But since then, she has made huge strides, winning gold at the 2019 World Championships in Dubai and followed that up with victory at the Tokyo Paralympics – one of three gold medallists for her nation in the field events in Japan.

Hollie Arnold (Great Britain) F46 javelin

Arnold is bidding for her fifth world title in a row but this could be her toughest challenge to date.

Still only 29, Arnold, who was born without her right forearm, is the most experienced female athlete on the British team having made her international debut at the Beijing Paralympics when she was only 14.

Her first major title came at the 2013 Worlds in Lyon – the last time the competition was held in France – and she went on to claim her maiden Paralympic title in Rio.

After the Tokyo Games were delayed because of the pandemic, she took part in the 2020 series of I’m A Celebrity in Wales, where she was the first contestant to leave.

After returning to training, she won bronze behind long-time rival Holly Robinson of New Zealand and Dutchwoman Noelle Roorda and will want to show she is back to her best in France.

Markus Rehm (Germany) – T64 Long Jump

Despite his years of experience, Rehm still keeps on pushing himself to new distances and re-writing the record books.

The ‘Blade Jumper’ lost his right leg below the knee in a wakeboarding accident when he was a teenager.

But he has shone as a long jumper, and the three-time Paralympic gold medallist will be aiming for his sixth consecutive long jump world title in Paris

In May, he improved his own world record to 8.64 – a distance that would have won gold at every Olympics since Barcelona in 1992.

Catherine Debrunner (Switzerland) – T53 100, 400 and 800m

The 28-year-old Swiss star is in the form of her life and will be hoping to dominate on the track in her T53 category.

She has already put down a marker this season improving her own 100, 400 and 800m world records on home soil in May.

It comes on the back of a successful 2022 where she made her marathon debut, winning in Berlin and in London, where she set a new course record and her performances saw her win the World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability prize at the prestigious Laureus Awards.

Although the 400m is her main event and the one where she is defending world champion and also Paralympic champion, she will be a threat in all her events.

Timothee Adolphe (France) – T11 100 and 400m

There will be plenty of interest in the French team at the championships a year before they host the Paralympics and Adolphe, who combines life as an athlete with a side career as a hip-hop artist, is one of their leading lights.

The 33-year-old competes in the T11 category for athletes with little or no vision who compete wearing blacked out goggles and with the aid of a guide.

Nicknamed the White Cheetah, Adolphe made his international debut on home soil at the 2013 Worlds in Lyon, winning 400m bronze.

He triumphed over 400m and was second in the 100m at the 2019 World Championships in Dubai but had a mixed experience at the Tokyo Paralympics with a disqualification in the 400m but bounced back to take silver in the 100m.

Vanessa Low (Aus) – T61 long jump

Born in Germany, Low lost both legs above the knee after a train accident. But the sports-mad teenager was determined to continue competing and spent two years learning how to walk again with prosthesis.

She made her international debut at the 2011 Worlds, winning bronze in the long jump and the 100m and won her first major title at the 2014 Europeans before going on to claim a world title in 2015 and Paralympic gold the following year.

Having married Australian Paralympic gold medal-winning sprinter Scott Reardon, who is now her coach, Low switched nationalities and won gold for Australia at the 2019 Worlds and the Tokyo Paralympics.

Last September she gave birth to son Matteo and although she admits that this event might have come a bit too soon, she is focussed on retaining her Paralympic title in France next year.