A record-breaking Paralympics for India came to an end on Sunday and it was a memorable ten days. From Avani Lekhara’s gold medal on the shooting range to Navdeep’s gold in the javelin, everything in between was historic as India’s Para athletes scripted the country’s greatest Paralympics campaign ever.
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This is India’s story at the Paris Paralympics, told in numbers:
7.9.13
Seven gold medals, more than ever before. 29 medals, ten more than ever before. Records were broken. Incredible stories were told. From an Indian perspective, Paris 2024 will long be remembered for the achievements of its para athletes.
18
India finished in the top 20 of the medal count, narrowly missing out on the top 15. India was just one gold medal away from 15th place, while Spain is ahead of India with just two more silver medals.
1
There were several firsts for India at the Paralympics. Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar won India’s first Paralympic medal in recurve archery in the mixed team event. Kapil Parmar became the first Indian Paralympic medalist in judo and Harvinder Singh won the country’s first gold medal in para archery.
Furthermore, Hokato Hotozhe Sema, making his debut at this stage, became the first Paralympic participant from Nagaland and also his state’s first medallist in the Men’s Shot Put F57.
3
Avani Lekhara (gold in the women’s 10m air rifle SH1) and Mariyappan Thangavelu (bronze in the men’s high jump T63) each won the third Paralympic medal of their career, more than any other Indian in history. Only Joginder Singh Bedi and Devendra Jhajharia had won three medals before Paris.
3.05
For Navdeep to even be in contention for a gold medal, he had to significantly improve his personal best in the men’s F41 javelin final. And that’s exactly what he did, throwing the javelin 3.05m further than ever before. That’s a personal best on the biggest stage. He ended up on the top step of the podium, helped a little by the disqualification of his Iranian rival.
4
There were four competitions in Paris in which two Indians stood on the podium.
Dharambir and Pranav Soorma finished first and second in the men’s clubs F51. Mona Agarwal finished third in the same event in which Avani won gold. Sharad Kumar and Mariyappan Thangavelu finished second and third in the men’s high jump T63, while Thulasimathi M and Manisha Ramadass also finished second and third in the women’s badminton singles SU5.
7
Praveen Kumar came into the men’s T64 high jump final with the third highest personal best of the field. Seven jumps later, he had won gold. He had cleared seven heights in just one attempt each, including the gold medal-winning height of 2.08m. His mistakes at 2.10m didn’t matter because by then he had already upgraded his silver from Tokyo to gold from Paris.
10
10 Indian Para athletes won multiple Paralympic medals in Paris led by the sensational Sumit Antil. Harvinder Singh, Praveen Kumar, Suhas Yathiraj, Nishad Kumar, Sharad Kumar, Manish Narwal, Yogesh Kathuniya and Sundar Singh Gurjar added another medal in Paris after theirs in Tokyo while Preethi Pal won two bronze medals here in Paris.
There were also ten female medalists from the Indian team, who together won 11 medals.
24,75
After 6 races in 4 days, the women’s 200m T12 final came down to Simran leaving Paris with a medal she richly deserved after narrowly losing out (by 0.05 seconds) in the 100m final, winning bronze with a personal best of 24.75 seconds.
1 with 2
Making her Paralympics debut, Preethi Pal became the only Indian Para athlete to win multiple medals in Paris, winning bronze medals in both the 100m and 200m T35 events.
70.59
Sumit Antil had a stunning night in Tokyo three years ago when he broke the world record three times. Since then he has continued to push his world record higher and higher. He didn’t quite reach it in Paris, but here in Paris he beat his Tokyo record three times and set a new Paralympic record with a best throw of 70.59m.
249.7
Avani Lekhara defended her gold medal in the women’s 10m Air Rifle SH1 category, breaking her own Paralympics record set in Tokyo. Avani scored a total of 249.7 points to secure the gold thanks to a poor shot from her Korean rival (who had been in the lead until then), who scored 6.8 with her last shot.
