 "India's Paralympics history: Edition-wise performance and full list of medal winners")
India will be sending their largest-ever contingent of 84 athletes to Paris Paralympics 2024 which begins on 28 August and will go on till 8 September. The previous biggest contingent was that of 54 which took part in the Tokyo Paralympics three years back and won a record-breaking 19 medals (Five gold, eight silver, and six bronze), their best-ever performance.
Overall India have participated in 12 editions of the Paralympics, winning a total of 31 medals (Nine gold, 12 silver, and 10 bronze).
Paralympics: Dates, history, Indian athletes, list of sports and all you need to know
The first Paralympics took place in 1960 in Rome but India did not participate in the first edition or the second in Tokyo in 1964.
India’s Paralympics debut
Their first participation came at the 1968 Tel Aviv Games.
India sent a contingent of 10 athletes to Tel Aviv including two women. They did not win a medal.
First Paralympics medal for India and 1984 boom
The first Paralympic medal for India came 1972 Heidelberg Games in Germany. The first medal came through para-swimmer Murlikant Petkar who clocked a world record time of 37.331 seconds to clinch 50m freestyle swimming gold. This was the only medal at the 1972 Games.
India did not take part in the 1976 and 1980 Games at Toronto and Arnhem respectively before returning for the 1984 Stoke Mandeville/New York edition. The country won four medals in 1984 and finished a joint-37th position with South Korea. The biggest star from the 1984 Games was Joginder Singh Bedi who won a silver in men’s shot put and also clinched two bronze medals in discus and javelin throw respectively.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsBhimrao Kesarkar won the fourth medal - a silver in the javelin throw.
The medal drought
The record-making four medals at the 1984 Games, however, failed to inspire the country as India did not win a single medal at the 1988 Seoul, 1992 Barcelona, 1996 Atlanta, and 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The drought ended at the 2004 Athens Games when Devendra Jhajharia won gold in javelin throw and Rajinder Singh clinched bronze in powerlifting (56kg category).
India once again failed to win a single medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
India ended the drought in the 2012 London Olympics with HN Girisha winning the only medal - a silver in the men’s high jump F42 category.
2016 Rio Games turnaround
At the 2016 Rio Games, India matched their best-ever haul of four medals. Devendra Jhajharia won gold in the javelin throw F46 category, while Mariyappan Thangavelu clinched the top prize in the high jump F42 category. Deepa Malik won silver in shot put and Varun Singh Bhati grabbed a bronze in the high jump F42.
Record-breaking performance at Tokyo 2020
All records were broken at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics as India won 19 medals after sending their then-biggest-ever contingent of 54 athletes. Overall India finished 24th among 86 countries.
The gold medals were won by Avani Lekhara (10m air rifle standing SH1), Pramod Bhagat (Singles SL3 badminton), Krishna Nagar (Singles SH6 badminton), Sumit Antil (Javelin throw F64) and Manish Narwal (Mixed 50m pistol SH1).
Here are the other medal winners:
Silver medal winners
Bhavinaben Patel - Singles class 4 table tennis)
Singhraj Adhana - Mixed 50m pistol SH1
Yogesh Kathuniya - Discus F56
Nishad Kumar - High jump T47
Mariyappan Thangavelu - High jump T63
Praveen Kumar - High jump T64
Devendra Jhajharia - Javelin F46
Suhas Yathiraj - Singles badminton SL4
Bronze medal winners
Avani Lekhara - 50m rifle 3 positions SH1
Harvinder Singh - Individual recurve archery
Sharad Kumar- High jump T63
Sundar Singh Gurjar - Javelin throw F46
Manoj Sarkar - Singles badminton SL3
Singhraj Adhana - 10m air pistol SH1
India’s Paralympics medal wins across editions:
| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 Rome | Did not participate | - | ||
| 1964 Tokyo | Did not participate | - | ||
| 1968 Tel Aviv | - | - | - | - |
| 1972 Heidelberg | 1 | - | - | 1 |
| 1976 Toronto | Did not participate | - | ||
| 1980 Arnhem | Did not participate | - | ||
| 1984 UK/USA | - | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 1988 Seoul | - | - | - | - |
| 1992 Barcelona | - | - | - | - |
| 1996 Atalanta | - | - | - | - |
| 2000 Sydney | - | - | - | - |
| 2004 Athens | 1 | - | 1 | 2 |
| 2008 Beijing | - | - | - | - |
| 2012 London | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| 2016 Rio de Janeiro | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 2020 Tokyo | 5 | 8 | 6 | 19 |
| Total | 9 | 12 | 10 | 31 |
India’s Paralympics medal winners
| Athlete | Medal | Event | Games |
|---|---|---|---|
| Murlikant Petkar | Gold | Swimming, Men’s 50m freestyle 3 | Heidelberg 1972 |
| Bhimrao Kesarkar | Silver | Men’s javelin throw L6 | Stoke Mandeville/New York 1984 |
| Joginder Singh Bedi | Bronze | Men’s javelin throw L6 | Stoke Mandeville/New York 1984 |
| Joginder Singh Bedi | Silver | Men’s shot put L6 | Stoke Mandeville/New York 1984 |
| Joginder Singh Bedi | Bronze | Men’s discus throw L6 | Stoke Mandeville/New York 1984 |
| Devendra Jhajharia | Gold | Men’s javelin throw F44/ 46 | Athens 2004 |
| Rajinder Singh Rahelu | Bronze | Men’s 56 kg | Athens 2004 |
| Girisha N Gowda | Silver | Men’s high jump F42 | London 2012 |
| Mariyappan Thangavelu | Gold | Men’s high jump F42 | Rio 2016 |
| Varun Singh Bhati | Bronze | Men’s high jump F42 | Rio 2016 |
| Devendra Jhajharia | Gold | Men’s javelin throw F46 | Rio 2016 |
| Deepa Malik | Silver | Women’s shot put F53 | Rio 2016 |
| Bhavina Patel | Silver | Women’s singles table tennis Class 4 | Tokyo 2020 |
| Nishad Kumar | Silver | Men’s high jump T47 | Tokyo 2020 |
| Avani Lekhara | Gold | Women’s 10m air rifle shooting standing SH1 | Tokyo 2020 |
| Devendra Jhajharia | Silver | Men’s javelin throw F46 | Tokyo 2020 |
| Sundar Singh Gurjar | Bronze | Men’s javelin throw F46 | Tokyo 2020 |
| Yogesh Kathuniya | Silver | Men’s discus throw F56 | Tokyo 2020 |
| Sumit Antil | Gold | Men’s javelin throw F64 | Tokyo 2020 |
| Singhraj Adhana | Bronze | Men’s 10m air pistol shooting SH1 | Tokyo 2020 |
| Mariyappan Thangavelu | Silver | Men’s high jump T42 | Tokyo 2020 |
| Sharad Kumar | Bronze | Men’s high jump T42 | Tokyo 2020 |
| Praveen Kumar | Silver | Men’s high jump T64 | Tokyo 2020 |
| Avani Lekhara | Bronze | Women’s 50m rifle 3 positions SH1 | Tokyo 2020 |
| Harvinder Singh | Bronze | Men’s individual recurve - open archery | Tokyo 2020 |
| Manish Narwal | Gold | Men’s 50m pistol SH1 | Tokyo 2020 |
| Singhraj Adhana | Silver | Men’s 50m pistol SH1 | Tokyo 2020 |
| Pramod Bhagat | Gold | Men’s singles badminton SL3 | Tokyo 2020 |
| Manoj Sarkar | Bronze | Men’s singles badminton SL3 | Tokyo 2020 |
| Suhas Yathiraj | Silver | Men’s singles badminton SL4 | Tokyo 2020 |
| Krishna Nagar | Gold | Men’s singles badminton SH6 | Tokyo 2020 |
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