Around 4,400 athletes from 184 nations participated in the 17th edition of the Paralympic Games, with several records broken and many memorable moments.
Los Paris 2024 Paralympic Games they closed an unforgettable sports summerwith two weeks of exciting competitions and records broken until the last day of the Games.
An Italian athlete proposes to his girlfriend after a race
Italian Alessandro Ossola proposed to his girlfriend, Arianna Mandradoni, after competing in the men’s 100 meters T63 in front of 40,000 people at the Stade de France. “You’re crazy!” she exclaimed at first, but then she said the long-awaited “Yes!”
“Sometimes she believed in me more than I believed in myself, and that’s a really amazing thing. It’s something that everyone needs, and I hope May everyone find someone like her. “She is my partner… for life,” Ossola said of his future wife.
Shark attack survivor wins two medals
Ali Truwit and a friend were snorkelling in the ocean off the British Overseas Territory of Turks and Caicos in 2023 when a shark charged and bit the lower part of the left leg of Truwit, who ran almost 70 meters towards the boat before being rushed to the hospital and flown to the United States, where she underwent three operations, once to amputate her lower leg.
He regained his love of water by starting over in the family’s backyard pool, where fought against fear and regained controlbeginning a new journey that took her to the Paris Paralympic Games, where she won two Paralympic silver medals and broke two United States records in just 48 hours.
“I love comeback stories,” says the 24-year-old from Darien, Connecticut. “Definitely, I have based myself on other people’s comeback stories to help me hold on to what seems like a bold and unrealistic hope: to fight a shark and survive and lose a limb and make it to the Paralympic Games, all in one year.”
Your mantra during recovery? “The work works“.
Moroccan El Idrissi breaks the marathon record on the last day
The marquee Fatima Ezzahra El Idrissi shattered the women’s marathon world record for visually impaired runners on the last day of the Paralympic Games.
The 29-year-old athlete finished in two hours, 48 minutes and 36 seconds on Sunday, beating the previous record of the Japanese Misato Michishita in almost six minutes in Hofu City, in December 2020.
His compatriot Meryem En-Nourhi was just over nine minutes behind, followed by Spain’s Elena Congostand Michishita fourth, almost 15 minutes behind the winner.
Tunisian Wajdi Boukhili won the men’s T12 marathon.
Youngest men’s individual Paralympic champion in history
The Japanese Tokito Oda became the youngest athlete in history to win a men’s individual event upon becoming Paralympic wheelchair tennis champion after beating the British Alfie Hewett 6-2, 4-6 and 7-5.
“After saving his match point, I said to myself: ‘I must win, I can win‘” he said. “After that, I started playing very well. “I just played my style.”
The 18-year-old had already won two Grand Slam titles in 2024and is now the youngest Paralympic men’s singles wheelchair tennis champion in history.
France breaks its soccer medal drought in front of the Eiffel Tower
What better setting to take sweet revenge and win gold in soccer?
ADVERTISINGThe French men’s blind soccer team beat Argentina in the final, the same country against which France lost the FIFA World Cup final in 2022. This time, the hosts defeated Argentina 3-2 in a penalty shootout under the lights of the Eiffel Tower.
Frédéric Villeroux, author of the decisive round, declared that “it looked like the script for a movie.” France also became the first team, apart from Brazil, in winning football for the blind in the Paralympic Games.
A wheelchair athlete wins the gold medal with his wife as a commentator
Another Paralympic love story. Canadian wheelchair racer Brent Lakatos won the gold medal in the men’s 800 meters T53 while his wife, Paralympian Stefanie Reid, acted as commentator.
“I just commented on my husband’s gold medal in the Paralympic Games,” she wrote on her social networks. In Paris, Lakatos won his thirteenth medal in his sixth Paralympic Games, and his second gold after the first in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
ADVERTISINGHis wife Reid won silver medals in the long jump at the Paralympic Games from 2012 and 2016.
First medal in history for the refugee team
Zakia Khudaddou, I’ll Be There Afghanistan and first Afghan female taekwondo athlete, made history in Paris by winning the first medal in history at the Paralympic Games for the Refugee Team.
Khudadadi won bronze in the women’s 47 kg category after defeat the Turkish Ekinci Nurcihan. When the final whistle sounded at the Grand Palais in central Paris, Khudadadi burst out with joy, throwing his helmet and mouthpiece into the air.
“It was a surreal moment, my heart raced when I realized I had won bronze,” Khudadadi declared, his voice shaking with emotion. “I have suffered a lot to get here. This medal is for all the women of Afghanistan and all the refugees in the world. I hope that one day there will be peace in my country.”
ADVERTISINGThe United States wins its third consecutive basketball gold
After triumphing in the Olympic Games, the United States men’s basketball team also affirmed its dominance in the Paralympic Games by winning his third consecutive gold.
Jake Williams scored 26 points in the 73-69 victory over the United Kingdom.
With this victory, the United States has three of three in the basketball Games, after the men and women They will win exciting finals against France at the Olympic Games last month, also at the Bercy Arena.
Caroline Groot sets a new standard in Paralympic cycling
The 27-year-old Dutch track cyclist not only won the first gold of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, but also broke the world record in C5finishing in 35.390 seconds, ahead of French cyclist Marie Patouillet and Canadian Kate O’Brien.
ADVERTISINGC1 to C5 are paracycling classifications for athletes with physical deficiencies that affect their legs, arms and/or trunk causing functionality issues that can use a standard bicycle.
Soares da Silva breaks the world record for the 400 meters in 29 years
Brazilian Rayane Soares da Silva won the women’s 400 meters T13 final and broke a record that had been in force for 29 years.
The Brazilian clocked an incredible time of 53.55 on the track of the Stade de France, surpassing the previous record of 54.56 established by American Marla Runyan in Los Angeles in 1995.
Despite the result, Soares said that I wasn’t very surprised.: “I was training for that,” he declared. “My 400 and 200 meter times were good in training.”
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