Indian athletes make history at Paris Paralympics 2024: A look at key milestones

The Indian contingent created history at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, winning a record total of 29 medals at the Games that concluded on Sunday. This tally includes seven gold medals, nine silver, and 13 bronze medals, meaning that India finished the Games in the top 20.

Paris Paralympics 2024:  News  |  Medal Tally  |  India Schedule

At the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021, India had won 19 medals in total, and just three years later, in the very next edition of the Paralympics, the nation’s athletes helped the country set a new benchmark.

Paralympics 2024: How India achieved its biggest medal haul in Paris

In a record-breaking campaign, Indian athletes set several historical milestones at the Paris Paralympics 2024. Here’s a look at the standout achievements that made the nation proud.

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— By winning the gold medal in women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1, Avani Lekhara became the first Indian woman to clinch multiple medals in the history of Paralympics. Avani had won gold in the same competition in Tokyo, along with a bronze in 50m rifle 3 Positions SH1 during that Games.

— When she won bronze in the women’s 100m T35 final on 30 August, Preethi Pal became the first Indian athlete to win a medal in track events at the Paralympics. A couple of days later, Preethi won another bronze, this time in the women’s 200m T35 final. She also became the first woman track and field athlete from India to win multiple Paralympic medals.

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— Rubina Francis , who won bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol SH category, is the first Indian woman to clinch a medal in pistol competitions at the Paralympics.

— Kapil Parmar became India’s first-ever para judo medallist when he won bronze in the men’s 60kg J1 category.

Paralympics 2024: India's medal tally and full list of winners

— Para-archer Harvinder Singh created history in Paris when he won gold in the men’s individual recurve open competition. He became the first Indian archer to clinch gold in the Olympics or Paralympics.

— Dharambir won India’s first-ever gold in club throw at the Paralympics, succeeding in the F51 category. Pranav Soorma won silver in the same event. The duo also became India’s first two medallists in club throw at the Paralympics.

— Sumit Antil defended his javelin throw gold in the F64 category . He broke the Paralympic record twice, first with a throw of 68.55m and later with another throw of 70.59m.

— Mariyappan Thangavelu became the first Indian para-athlete to win medals in three back-to-back editions of the Paralympics. In Paris, Thangavelu won bronze in men’s high jump T63, adding to his gold in Rio in 2016 and silver in Tokyo in 2021.

— Sheetal Devi , who won bronze in mixed team compound archery, became India’s youngest Paralympic medallist. Sheetal is 17 years old.

— With his silver in the men’s shot put F46 final, Sachin Khilari became India’s first male shot put medallist at the Paralympics in 40 years. Joginder Singh Bedi had won the shot put silver at the 1984 Games in Stoke Mandeville/New York.

— Hokato Hotoze Sema became the first Indian athlete from Nagaland to win a medal at the Paralympics. He won bronze in men’s shot put F57.

— Praveen Kumar won gold in the men’s high jump T64 athletics competition. That took India’s gold medal tally to six (Which later became seven), surpassing India’s previous best gold medal tally of five from Tokyo.

— Javelin thrower Navdeep Singh became the first Indian to win a medal in the F41 category at the Paralympics . He initially won silver but that was upgraded to gold after Iran’s Sadegh Beit Sayah, the original gold medallist, was disqualified.