Paris Paralympics 2024: How women athletes contributed to India's medal rush at Games

And just like that, in the blink of an eye, the 2024 Paris Paralympics is now done and dusted. Across 10 days of gripping sporting actions, it was pleasant to see that the Indian contingent had more ups than downs in Paris. Sure, there were certain expectations regarding Indian athletes coming out on top, but at the end of the day, these athletes did more than that.

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For them, apart from just winning medals, it was about creating history and setting new milestones. While reputed stars like Sumit Antil and Mariyappan Thangavelu secured podium finishes again, lesser-known athletes became famous overnight with their medal-winning feats. For some of them, it was their first-ever podium finish at the Paralympics.

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And it’s not just the men we’re talking about here. India’s women athletes enjoyed a breakthrough campaign in Paris — there were 10 women medallists at the Paris Paralympics from India, the contingent that won a record 29 medals. That’s a record number of women medallists from India in a single edition of the Paralympics.

India’s women athletes write a new chapter

Prior to the just-concluded Games, only three Indian women had won medals at the Paralympics —Deepa Malik (Silver, Rio 2016), Avani Lekhara (Gold and bronze, Tokyo 2020) and Bhavina Patel (Silver, Tokyo 2020). As you can see, India did not have a woman Paralympic medallist till 2016, that is 44 years after Murlikant Petkar became India’s first-ever Paralympic medallist in 1972. At the 1984 Paralympics, Malathi Krishnamurthy Holla became India’s first woman Paralympian and participated in para-athletics.

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Coming to the Paris Games. Barring Avani, who won gold in women’s 10m air rifle standing, India produced nine new women medallists —Thulasimathi Murugesan (Silver, badminton), Preethi Pal (Two bronze medals in athletics), Mona Agarwal (Bronze, shooting), Rubina Francis (Bronze, shooting), Manisha Ramadass (Bronze, badminton), Nithya Sre Sivan (Bronze, badminton), Sheetal Devi (Bronze, archery), Deepti Jeevanji (Bronze, athletics) and Simran Sharma (Bronze, athletics).

This is a significant achievement in Paralympic history as far as India’s female athletes are concerned, and it’s no mean feat. Each of them had their own challenges during the Games. And almost each of them had to deal with the pressure of expectations.

Take Sheetal Devi for example . She is just 17 years old and in the last few years, she has gone on to become one of India’s best para-archers.

Sheetal, who is without arms, caught the eye in Paris not just because of her calmness and composure, but the way she handled herself during matches, using her feet well to control the bow and arrow. She put up a brilliant show in the individual ranking round, missing out on the world record by just one point.

And in the 1/8 elimination round of women’s individual compound, she once again fell short by a point, losing to Chile’s Mariana Zuniga 137-138. Sometimes match pressure can get the better of you in times like these, but Sheetal, who later won bronze in mixed team compound, has displayed mental resilience more often than not.

Lekhara was a medal expectation as well. While she did win in the 10m air rifle standing, she went medalless in the two other events she competed (women’s 50m 3P and mixed 10m air rifle prone).

However, as they say, expect the unexpected. And sometimes the best things happen when you least expect it. Like the two bronze medals from Preethi Pal. By winning bronze in women’s 100m T35, Preethi became the first Indian athlete to win a track medal at Paralympics. She wasn’t done yet, as she won bronze in the 200m event.

Simran Sharma, a visually impaired athlete, was unfortunate to narrowly miss a medal in women’s 100m T12 after finishing fourth, but made up for it with a bronze in the 200m event. Deepthi Jeevanji too won bronze, in the women’s 400m T20 category.

Women make a mark in badminton

Badminton was always going to be a source for medals for India. And in Paris, India’s women shuttlers set a new benchmark. Manisha Ramadass, after going down to Thulasimathi Murugesan in the women’s singles SU5 semi-finals, clinched bronze, becoming India’s first badminton medallist in Paralympics.

Thulasi, though, was already confirmed of a medal on reaching the final, where she lost to China’s Yang Qiuxia and collected silver. Nithya Sre Sivan also won bronze, in women’s singles SH6 category.

Many would hope that this is just the beginning of something special from India’s athletes, more so the female athletes. And one thing is for sure, come the Los Angles Games in 2028, expectations will now be on an all-time high as far as Indian athletes are concerned because milestone victories like the ones we have witnessed in Paris will not be forgotten.

After all, the likes of Sheetal and Preethi are still young and have a long journey ahead of them, so much so that they, along with possibly a few others, would be tagged as “favourites” come LA28.