September 8, 2024, 1:00 PM
September 8, 2024, 1:00 PM
After eleven days of competitions, this Sunday The Paralympic Games sports events have ended Paris, with China leading the medal table. Iranian para-weightlifter Ahmad Aminzadeh won the last gold medal at stake in Paris 2024, where China confirmed its dominance in Paralympic sport.
The Asian giant, which Since Athens 2004, he has always finished at the top of the medal table, closed with 94 golds, 76 silvers and 50 bronzes for a total of 220 medals, compared to the 124 obtained by the United Kingdom (49-44-31) and the 105 by the United States (36-42-27).
The women’s basketball title was also at stake on Sunday. in wheelchairs, in which the Dutch champions retained their crown, beating the United States in the final (63-49).
In the morning the marathon events were held, with a bittersweet taste for Spain, which won its 40th medal with the silver of Alberto Sánchez, but suffered the disqualification of Elena Congost, initially bronze in T12 (visually impaired), a test in which the Moroccan Fatima El Idrissi improved the world record by almost six minutes.
– “Surreal” disqualification in the marathonn –
The Spaniard, who at 36 years old was competing again after her Paralympic title in Rio-2016, almost eight years in which she had four childrenwas disqualified for having let go of the rope to help her guide two metres from the finish line.
“I would like everyone to know that I have not been disqualified for cheating, “but for being a person and helping my guide (…) It seems unfair and surreal to me that there is no one to reason with,” Congost criticized disconsolately.
In T54 (wheelchair race) there was a Swiss double, for the favourites Catherine Debrunner and Marcel Hug.
After completing the various marathons, on the Esplanade des Invalides, Paris-2024 honored Rebecca Cheptegei, The Ugandan athlete who competed in the Olympic marathon in August and died this week in Kenya after being set on fire by an individual identified by police as her partner.
All this hours before at least 24 DJs from various generations The ‘French Touch’, the international name given to the musical genre that originated in France in the 1980s and 1990s, will set the musical mood for the latest party at the Stade de France.
The host country has combined sporting success with organizational success, both at the Olympic Games – a century after the last event was held – and at its first Paralympic Games, where the public responded and largely filled the venues, creating a festive atmosphere praised by the athletes.
Paris-2024 “will be the benchmark (Paralympic) Games, “in every aspect,” said the president of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), Brazilian Andrew Parsons, at a press conference on Sunday, who stressed that the event was “more competitive than ever.”
From a media perspective, 165 television channels from around the world have followed the event, a record, as well as the record of participating delegations, with a total of 168, and the number of women competing, with almost 2,000 (1,983), practically double those who took part in Sydney-2000 (988).
The record that will not be broken will be the number of tickets sold: In London-2012, 2.7 million tickets were sold, slightly more than in Paris (just over 2.5 million, according to the organisers), although the atmosphere in the different venues was festive, taking over from the Olympic Games.
It remains to be seen whether The Games break will leave a solid legacy in the form of raising awareness of the rights of people with disabilities, whether in terms of accessibility, access to employment or the practice of sports.
“We have not radically changed society, there is still much to do,” “But if we hadn’t had these Games, we wouldn’t have won all this time,” said Michael Jeremiasz, a para-tennis champion and chef de mission of the French delegation, before the Games. “There has never been so much investment, so much awareness.”
“My work intensifies on September 9th, making sure that it is the beginning of an explosion of this awareness,” he added.
