NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday lauded the Indian contingent for delivering their best-ever performance at the Paralympic Games in Paris, saying that it was possible due to “unwavering dedication and indomitable spirit” of the athletes.
The Indian contingent concluded its historic Paris Paralympics campaign with a total of 29 medals, including seven gold, nine silver, and 13 bronze medals, the most by the country in the history of the competition.
With this landmark campaign, India has surpassed their previously most-successful campaign at Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, which gave them 19 medals, including five golds, eight silvers and six bronze medals.
Taking to X, PM Modi wrote, “Paralympics 2024 have been special and historical. India is overjoyed that our incredible para-athletes have brought home 29 medals, which is the best ever performance since India’s debut at the Games. This achievement is due to the unwavering dedication and indomitable spirit of our athletes. Their sporting performances have given us many moments to remember and inspired several upcoming athletes. #Cheer4Bharat.”
Paralympics 2024 have been special and historical.
India is overjoyed that our incredible para-athletes have brought home 29 medals, which is the best ever performance since India’s debut at the Games.
This achievement is due to the unwavering dedication and indomitable spirit… pic.twitter.com/tME7WkFgS3
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 8, 2024
This record-haul also helped India cross the 50-medal mark in the history of the competition. A record of 84 para-athletes represented the tricolour from August 28 to Sunday in 12 disciplines, as compared to nine back in Tokyo 2020. India also participated in new sports at Paris: paracycling, para rowing, and blind judo.
India established several records and unlocked some new “firsts” at the Paralympic Games. Para-shooter Avani Lekhara became the first ever Indian woman to secure two Paralympic gold medals as she managed to defend her women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1 shooting title with a world record score of 249.7 points.
India recorded a one-two finish at a para-athletics competition for the first time, with Dharambir and Parnav Soorma clinching gold and silver, respectively, in the men’s club throw F51 event. This was among India’s first-ever medals in this sport. Dharambir also set an Asian record of 34.92 m.
Later on, in T64 high jump, Praveen Kumar raised the tricolour high with an Asian record-breaking jump of 2.08 m, landing India their sixth gold. India finished the competition with seven gold medals, their highest at any Paralympics event.
India also found its first-ever archery champion across both the Olympics and Paralympics, with Harvinder Singh getting the gold in the gold medal clash of the individual recurve para-archery against Poland’s Lukasz Ciszek.
Indian javelin throw ace Sumit Antil became the first Indian male to defend their Paralympics title, making it back-to-back gold in F64 event with a stunning Paralympic record-breaking throw of 70.59 m. He broke his own previous record set during the Tokyo 2020 not once, but thrice.
With a bronze medal in high jump T42 class, India’s high-jump athlete Mariyappan Thangavelu secured his third medal at Paralympics, becoming the first-ever Indian to get medals at three successive Paralympics events, with a gold in Rio 2016 and silver at Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.
Indian athlete Preethi Pal also secured a bronze medal in the women’s 100 m T35 race, which was the country’s first medal in a track event at the Paralympics. She achieved her best time of 14.21 in the event. She also secured a bronze medal at the T35 200 m race.
Among four medal winners in track events at Paralympics 2024 for India, Deepthi Jeevanji became the first intellectually impaired Indian athlete to secure a Paralympic medal, bagging a bronze medal in women’s 400m T20 class.
Records came in plenty during para-archery as the inspirational archer Sheetal Devi secured a world record in the ranking round before finishing at second place, with a total of 703 points. However, she could not get that singles competition medal. Later on, teaming up with Rakesh Kumar in the mixed team qualification event, they both went on to make another world record with a score of 1,399. The 17-year-old Sheetal went on to make history as she became country’s youngest Paralympic medalist, getting a bronze with Rakesh.
Indian para-shuttler Manisha Ramdass secured the country’s first-ever para-badminton medal, with a bronze. Kapil Parmar clinched a bronze medal by ousting Brazil’s Elielton de Oliveira, becoming the country’s first-ever Paralympic medallist in Judo.
A look at India’s medalists at the Paris 2024 Paralympics:
-Avani Lekhara (Shooting, Women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1, Gold)
-Mona Agarwal (Shooting, Women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1, Bronze)
-Preethi Pal (Athletics, Women’s 100m T35, Bronze)
-Manish Narwal (Shooting, Men’s 10m air pistol SH1, Silver)
-Rubina Francis (Shooting, Women’s 10m Air Pistol SH1, Bronze)
-Preethi Pal (Shooting, Women’s 10m Air Pistol SH1, Bronze)
-Nishad Kumar (Athletics, Men’s high jump T47, Silver)
-Yogesh Kathuniya (Athletics, Men’s discus throw F56, Silver)
-Nitesh Kumar (Badminton, Men’s singles SL3, Gold)
-Thulasimathi Murugesan (Badminton, Women’s singles SU5, Silver)
-Manisha Ramadass (Badminton, Women’s singles SU5, Bronze)
-Suhas Yathiraj (Badminton, Men’s singles SL4, Silver)
-Rakesh Kumar/Sheetal Devi (Archery, Mixed team compound open, Bronze)
-Sumit Antil (Athletics, Javelin throw F64, Gold)
-Nithya Sre Sivan (Badminton, Women’s singles SH6, Bronze)
-Deepthi Jeevanji (Athletics, Women’s 400m T20, Bronze)
-Mariyappan Thangavelu (Athletics, Men’s high jump T63, Bronze)
-Sharad Kumar (Athletics, Men’s high jump T63, Silver)
-Ajeet Singh (Athletics, Men’s javelin throw F46, Silver)
-Sundar Singh Gurjar (Athletics, Men’s javelin throw F46, Bronze)
-Sachin Khilari (Athletics, Men’s shot put F46, Silver)
-Harvinder Singh (Archery, Men’s individual recurve open, Gold)
-Dharambir (Athletics, Men’s club throw F51, Gold)
-Parnav Soorma (Athletics, Men’s club throw F51, Silver)
-Kapil Parmar (Judo, Men’s -60kg J1, Bronze)
-Praveen Kumar (Athletics, Men’s high jump T64, Gold)
-Hokato Hotozhe Sema (Athletics, Men’s shot put F57, Bronze)
-Simran (Athletics, Women’s 200m T12, Bronze)
-Navdeep Singh (Athletics, Men’s javelin throw F41, Gold). (ANI)