After India’s moderate campaign at the Paris Olympics, which ended with 6 medals this time with the best from Neeraj Chopra’s silver, the nation is now on the upfront for their Paralympics campaign at Paris from the 28th of August to the 8th of September.
The campaign for the first time has a record contingent of 84 para-athletes and the nation will compete in 3 more disciplines than the Tokyo Paralympics, as they will be seen in 12 different disciplines.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics was India’s greatest-ever campaign as it featured 5 Gold medalists from the nation, with Avani Lekhara (Shooting), Sumit Antil (Javelin Throw), Manish Narwal (Shooting), Pramod Bhagat (Badminton) and Krishna Nagar (Badminton) all emerging as Gold medalists.
The 2024 contingent was hence led by Avani Lekhara and Sumit Antil for India, both are of immense pride to the nation, as Antil owns a world record throw while Avani was the first Indian female Paralympic Gold medalist.
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India’s performance at the Paralympics 2024
After the success at the Tokyo Paralympics where India won a record of 19 medals, 5 gold, eight silver and 6 bronze, the best ever in the history of the nation, many look to target the Paris Paralympics as well.
Of them, Avani Lekhara has emerged successful in defending her Gold medal from Tokyo to Paris as she once again clinched gold in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing event, which makes her the first Indian woman to defend her title in the Paralympics.
Para TT player, Bhavina Patel and archer Harvinder Singh will also be in the hunt to look for a probable medal. After Sheetal Devi missed nearly a qualification in the singles archery, the armless archer went on to feature alongside Rakesh Kumar in the mixed round where they combined for a world record in the qualification round.
India for the first time saw their two flags together at the podium, as alongside Avani Lekhara, Mona Agarwal also won the bronze in the same event. Manish Narwal the Tokyo gold medalist settled for a Silver this time as well as Nishad Kumar in the High jump.
Rubina Francis also won a bronze in the 10m Air Pistol shooting, while para athlete Preethi Pal clinched two bronze medals, as alongside Manu Bhaker from the Olympics, she became the first Indian Paralympian to have clinched two medals at the same summer events.
India will compete in para-cycling, blind judo and para-rowing for the first time in the Paris Paralympics.
