The Paris Paralympics came to a close on Sunday with a record-breaking performance by India that saw them win 29 medals (7 gold, 9 silver, 13 bronze).
India’s women step up
At Rio 2016 it was just one medal, as Deepa Malik won silver to become the first Indian female Paralympic medallist. At Tokyo 2020, Avani Lekhara and Bhavina Patel won three medals among them. At Paris 2024, that number multiplied more than thrice as Indian women brought home a total of 11 medals among them (including one in mixed team events). That, perhaps, is the story of India’s campaign as they finished 18th on the medal tally.
The tally of 29 medals and 7 gold are both all-time highs for India at the Paralympics, beating the mark set in Tokyo (19 medals and 5 gold), where India finished 24th.
29 Medals, 1 Nation, Limitless Pride! 🇮🇳✨
Our para-athletes have made history at the Paris 2024 Paralympics! With 7 Gold, 9 Silver, and 13 Bronze medals, they have shown the world the true meaning of resilience, grit, and determination.
Each victory is a testament to their… pic.twitter.com/S93jhrlR7s
— Paralympic Committee of India (@PCI_IN_Official) September 8, 2024
Avani Lekhara, Sheetal Devi, Thulasimathi Murugesan, Manisha Ramadass, Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan, Rubina Francis, and Mona Agarwal delivered in shooting, archery and badminton. But one of the biggest takeaways from the Games for India were the three women who set the lavender track on fire at Stade de France. Track events historically haven’t been India’s strong suit, especially the sprints. Before Paris, India had never won a medal in a sprint event at the Paralympics.
This time around though, three women delivered in style. Preethi Pal was India’s solitary double-medallist at the Games, winning bronze in 100m and 200m T35 events. Deepthi Jeevanji and Simran came into Paris as World Champions, and bagged bronze in 400m T20 and 200m T12 respectively as India set a new track record too. Kapil Parmar deserves a special mention as he added a new sport in India’s list of Paralympic medals, by winning bronze in blind judo.
Elsewhere, para athletics was once again the big source of medals for India and this time around, there were new champions crowned that helped India overtake the gold medal haul from Tokyo. That, and a first-ever gold medal in archery, thanks to Harvinder Singh, ensured India have a new benchmark for LA 2028.
China’s monopoly
While the battle for the top spot between USA and China came down to the wire during the Olympics last month, the Paralympics was dominated once more by China. For the sixth Paralympics in a row, Chinese athletes have dominated the Games, a streak that began at Athens 2004. Their tally in Paris was 94 gold, 76 silver, and 50 bronze for a total of 220 medals. China made their Paralympics debut only in 1984 and took their time to get going. At the turn of the century in Sydney, China were placed 6th on the table with a total of 73 medals. Rio 2016, however, remains China’s most dominant campaign where they won 107 gold in an overall tally of 239 medals.
China’s unreal domination of the medals tally is largely down to their haul in Para Swimming and Para Athletics. From those two sports combined, they won 103 medals with 59 coming from the Stade de France in track and field while the pool contributed 54.
There was no change in the top three as China were followed by Great Britain and USA. The Netherlands too kept their place in the top 5. While Russia competed under the RPC banner in 2021 and finished fourth, the Neutral Paralympic Athletes (group of approved Russians and Belarusians) technically finished 5th in Paris. But the official medal tally doesn’t give NPA a rank.
French ride home support
Underneath the Eiffel Tower’s glow, there was pin-drop silence. It was the men’s blind football match between France and Argentina. In blind football, sport the spectators are mandated to remain quiet when a play is on, as the sport depends on athletes listening to cues from the ball and coaches. But once the winning penalty was scored, the home crowd went bonkers. If there was a roof, it would have lifted as France won gold in this event for the first time ever. At La Chapelle during badminton too, the atmosphere was stunning as Lucas Mazur and Charles Noakes delivered gold, with the former beating India’s Suhas Yathiraj in a final where the crowd made a massive difference.
The wave of support during the Paris Olympics across all venues was unmissable, but before every Paralympic Games, there is always a sense of uncertainty of whether that will be repeated. While London 2012 is widely considered to be the best-ever Paralympic Games, Rio 2016 was off to a rocky start. Controversies in the buildup led to sparse crowds early days but it got better as the Games went on. Tokyo remains an outlier. But Frenchpeople turned up in massive numbers for the Paralympics too. According to The Guardian, almost 2.5m tickets were sold and more than 90% were to French people.
So France soared into the top 10 (8th) with 19 gold and a total of 75 medals, up from 11 gold and 55 medals in Tokyo that saw them finish 14th.
