 "Para-sprinter Hunter Woodhall gets his gold medal photographed by wife Tara Davis-Woodhall, who had won gold in the women's long jump event in the Olympics last month. Reuters")
The 17th Paralympic Games ended on Sunday with a grand closing ceremony at Stade de France, bringing a firework-laden conclusion to six weeks’ worth of sporting action of the highest quality in Paris.
It was a rain-soaked opening ceremony that had begun the Olympics on 26 July. After sparing the Olympic closing ceremony and Paralympic opening ceremony on 11 August and 28 August respectively, the rain gods decided to make another appearance on Sunday, resulting in umbrellas and rain jackets having to be brought out.
Paris Paralympics 2024: News | Medal Tally | India Results
The event concluded the way it did in the last five editions of the Paralympics — with China topping the medal table. The Chinese contingent finished with 220 medals including 94 gold, signing off with a lead of nearly 100 medals over runners-up Great Britain, who have finished second in 10 out of the 17 editions of the Paralympics that have taken place till date.
The United States, still the only nation with more than 2,000 Paralympic medals, finishing third with 105 medals including 36 gold. With the next edition of the Olympic and Paralympic Games taking place in Los Angeles, the Americans will be hopeful of returning to the top of the Paralympic medal table for the first time since Atlanta 1996 four years from now.
It was also a memorable campaign for the Indian contingent, who sent their biggest Paralympic team ever comprising 84 members and ended up collecting 29 medals in return — its biggest haul, eclipsing the 19 medals they had won in Tokyo three years ago.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsWith the Paralympics coming to an end, we take a look at some of the most memorable moments from the 28 August-8 September event:
Refugee Paralympic Team wins its first medal
The Paris 2024 Games witnessed the Refugee Olympic Team win its first-ever medal. It was a similar story with the Refugee Paralympic Team, which won its first-ever medal on the very first day of competitions.
Zakia Khudadadi won bronze in the para taekwondo women’s 47kg category to finally open the Refugee Team’s account in its third appearance in the Paralympics. Four days later, Guillaume Junior Atangana would become the second refugee athlete to stand on the Paralympic podium by winning bronze in the men’s 400m T11 category.
Hunter Woodhall emulates his Olympian wife
Tara Davis-Woodhall and Hunter Woodhall further solidified their status as a power couple in the world of sport in the Paris Games, both winning gold in their respective events.
Tara had won gold in the women’s long jump final on 8 August with a leap of 7.10 metres. Almost exactly a month later, at the same venue, Hunter would win gold in the men’s 400m T62 category with a timing of 46.36 seconds.
Even more fitting was the fact that both Hunter and Tara were present at Stade de France for their partner’s final, and on both occasions, the victory was made all the more special with a kiss. It was only fitting that these heartwarming scenes were taking place in the ‘City of Love’.
Paralympics gets its first transgender athlete
Paris 2024 bore witness to another first — that of an openly transgender para-athlete competing at the Paralympics after visually-impaired Italian para-sprinter Valentina Petrillo competed in the women’s 200m and 400m races in the T12 category last week.
Petrillo’s participation, however, came less than a month after boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu Ting found themselves embroiled in a gender row during the Olympics.
It was no different for Petrillo, whose participation was criticised by many including Olympic gold medal-winning former British swimmer Sharron Davies, who questioned the presence of a “51-year-old male” in women’s events.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who had targeted Khelif’s participation in Paris, too joined slammed Petrillo’s participation, calling the Italian a “cheat”.
Petrillo, however, failed to advance beyond the semi-finals in both events that she participated in, her campaign ending on a disappointing note.
Omara Durand completes an incredible feat
Cuba’s Omara Durand, meanwhile, brought the curtains down on her career in glorious fashion by winning gold in the women’s 200m T12 race , the event that also had Petrillo in the heats and in the semi-finals, on Saturday.
Her victory in the final track event of her glittering career resulted in the 32-year-old visually impaired para-sprinter completing an unprecedented “triple triple”. Not only did she win gold in the 200 metres event, also achieved a similar position on the podium in the 100m and 400m races as well.
And Durand, who had Yuniol Kindelan Vargas by her side as her guide, achieved the hat-trick of golds just in in the Paris Games, but in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 as well, making for an achievement that is as remarkable and hall-of-fame-worthy as it can get.
Durand had also won the 100m and 400m events in the T13 category in London 2012, meaning she signed off from the track with 10 gold medals in as many Paralympic events throughout her stellar career.
Matt Stutzman achieves a first
Another first witnessed in the Paris Games was American para-archer Matt Stutzman winning gold in the men’s individual compound open event. Defeating China’s Ai Xinliang in the final 149-147, Stutzman became the world’s first archer without arms to win a gold medal at the Paralympics.
Stutzman is widely credit for developing a technique that helps with shooting arrows even without the use of arms, which would later help India’s Sheetal Devi realise her dream of becoming a world-class para-archer and later win bronze in the Paris Paralympics.