From Unexpected Medals To Title Defence: A Look At India's Performance At Paris Paralympics 2024

Differently-abled but exceptionally resolute, India's para-athletes would look back at their Paralympics campaign with pride as most of the established names lived up to expectations and many talented greenhorns made the big stage their own in a record-smashing medal haul of 29. Seven of these 29 medals are gold, which is another first for the country that started to make its presence felt only in the 2016 edition, where it won four medals. The upswing in performance after that has been meteoric with Tokyo yielding 19, a number that was surpassed this time.

Not to forget, a lot of medal-winning performances here were record efforts and personal bests, demonstrating that the athletes have made significant progress as far as their self-belief is concerned.

The 29 medals in five sports, including a whopping 17 at the track and field events, have ensured that the country will end in the top 20 of the mega-event that was once again dominated by China with over 200 medals.

India is still far away from becoming a force at the Olympic level but the nation has certainly emerged as a force to be reckoned with in the competition for the differently-abled.

The government did its bit with increased spending on training, recovery and support staff. The sports ministry had 59 para-athletes in its Target Olympic Podium Scheme roster, 50 of whom qualified for Paris.

Unexpected medals in track and judo

The contingent of 84 ensured plenty of firsts for India in Paralympic history including medals in track events with sprinter Preethi Pal winning a bronze in the women's 100m T35 and 200m T35 class.

T35 classification is meant for athletes who have coordination impairments such as hypertonia, ataxia and athetosis. Preethi was born with