A record number of First Nations athletes will compete in green and gold at the 17th Summer Paralympic Games when competition begins next Wednesday.

In Paris, Amanda Reid returns to defend her Tokyo Gold in the C1-3 500 metre cycling, with Ruby Storm back after two podium finishes in 2021, Samantha Schmidt competing in discus and Telaya Blacksmith making her Paralympic debut in track and field.

It equals Australia's Indigenous representation when Donna Burns (basketball), Karl Feifar (athletics) and Tracy Barrell won gold at Barcelona in 1992, alongside previous high jump bronze winner Warren Lawton, who competed in goalball in Spain.

Blacksmith is set to become Australia's 16th Indigenous Paralympian when the teenage sprinter and long jumper steps out onto Stade de France.

"To think that I'll be at school one day and the next on a plane to compete on the biggest stage across the other side of the world is hard to get my head around it," Blacksmith told Sport Inclusion Australia.

In April, the Walpiri star took top honours at the Australian Athletics Championships 2024 in Adelaide in long jump and 200m.

A Paralympic swimmer-turned-cyclist and Gurinagi and Wamba Wamba woman, Reid takes a Rio silver alongside her more recent triumph in Tokyo into Paris.

Schmidt, a Wakawaka and Gubbi Gubbi woman, returns for a second Games after debuting in Japan ranked 6th in the world, and off the back of a top-10 finishes in recent World Championships.

Ruby Storm, aged 20, is back after collecting silver in 4x100m freestyle relay S14 and bronze in the women's 100m butterfly S14 in her last Paralympic campaign.

The Traralgon talent and Wiradjuri swimmer said, leading into the games, "I just try and show everyone that 'Hey, I can do this and don't underestimate me'".

"I just focus on what I want to achieve to make myself proud, make my family proud and make my squad proud," Storm said, via Paralympics Australia.

The 2024 Games is the first since the passing of Kevin Coombs.

In Rome, 1960, Coombs competed as Australia's first known Indigenous Olympian or Paralympian in wheelchair basketball, and went on to don green and gold at five Paralympic Games between 1960 and 1984. He passed away in October 2023.