Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
WEKU
Team USA finished 3rd in the Paralympic medal count. Here are the highlights
By Rachel Treisman,
1 days ago
Ellie Marks and Paul Schulte hold Team USA's flag during the closing ceremony of the Summer Paralympic Games at Stade de France on Sunday. (Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
China extended its two-decade-long Paralympic winning streak , dominating both the overall medal count (220) and in gold medals (94) for the sixth Summer Games in a row.
Great Britain placed second with 124 total medals, 49 of them gold. The U.S. was close behind with 105 medals, including 36 gold. The Netherlands and Brazil rounded out the top five.
Team USA competed in 20 sports (out of 22 included in this year’s Games) and earned podium finishes in 16, according to the committee. Fifty-three American athletes won their first Paralympic medals, and 29 left Paris with more than one.
“We are so proud of Team USA and their incredible performances at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games,” said Sarah Hirshland , the CEO of U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. “Their determination and grit invigorated and inspired a proud nation and fans around the world, uniting us all through the transformative power of sport.”
Team USA swept swimming and track
Gold medalist Hunter Woodhall of Team United States celebrates with wife and fellow Olympian Tara Davis-Woodhall during the Men's 400m T62 medal ceremony on Friday. (Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
The U.S. earned most of its medals in Para track and field (38 total), followed by swimming (30). It also won big in cycling (8), triathlon (8) and equestrian (7).
In the pool, six-time Paralympian Jessica Long won two medals to bring her career total to 31 (including 18 gold). That makes Long — who won her first medal at Athens 2004 at age 12 — the second-most decorated American Paralympian of all time.
“I'm coming towards the end of my career — I hope to end in LA,” she told Olympics.com .
First-time Paralympic swimmers also made headlines and racked up medals. Ali Truwit won two silver medals just a year after losing part of her leg in a shark attack, and Christie Raleigh Crossley won five medals — and set a 50-meter freestyle world record — despite facing bullying from people who have doubted her disability .
Raleigh Crossley is tied with fellow swimmer Ellie Marks for most medals won by an American Paralympian in Paris.
Marks, a U.S. Army sergeant first class who now has nine career Paralympic medals — including Team USA’s first medal of the Paris Games — served as one of the flag bearers at Sunday’s closing ceremony.
Americans extended winning streaks and achieved notable firsts
U.S. players pose with their gold medals after winning the wheelchair basketball men's gold medal match at the 2024 Paralympics on Saturday. (Thomas Padilla / AP)
The U.S. Para triathlon team won eight medals, the best performance for any country in the sport and the third year in a row the U.S. has placed first.
Team USA won its third straight title in men’s wheelchair basketball — the first country to ever do so — as well as women’s sitting volleyball.
The women’s wheelchair basketball team won silver for the first time in 32 years. The storied wheelchair rugby team also won a silver medal, reaching the podium for its seventh consecutive Games.
That’s one of many notable firsts for American athletes.
Duo Miles Krajewski and Jayci Simon — both 19 years old — overcame the odds and a series of logistical obstacles to become the first U.S. athletes to medal in the sport of badminton at either the Paralympic or Olympic Games.
Matt Stutzman of Team USA competes in the Para archery men's quarterfinal on Sept, 1. (Alex Davidson / Getty Images)
Four-time Paralympian Matt Stutzman made history as the first armless archer to win a Paralympic gold medal, in the men’s individual compound open.
Jeremy Campbell became the first Paralympian to throw over 60 meters in discus F64 (which earned him his fourth discus gold medal), while Noelle Malkamaki became the first woman to throw over 14 meters in the shot put F46 (which won her a gold medal and broke her own world record). Liana Mutia became the first American woman to medal in Para judo-57 kg.
And multi-sport athlete Oksana Masters repeated as champion in both of her individual Para cycling road race events, bringing her career medal total to 19 in four different sports — rowing, cross-country skiing, biathlon and cycling — across both Winter and Summer Games.
Marriage proposals, the first refugee team medals and other milestones
Taekwondo fighter Zakia Khudadadi of the Refugee Paralympic Team, originally from Afghanistan, celebrates after winning the women's contest on Aug.s 29. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
The Paralympics were packed with incredible athletic achievements, powerful personal stories and other meaningful milestones.
Several countries, like Eritrea, were represented at the Games for the first time. Others reached the medal podium for the first time, like Nepal, whose Palesha Goverdhan won bronze in taekwondo to give the country its first-ever Paralympic or Olympic medal.
And among the many memorable moments outside of the competition were a whopping four marriage proposals to, by or between Paralympic athletes, a fitting motif for the “city of love.”
Preliminary numbers suggest that after a highly-watched Olympics in July, lots of viewers kept up with the action through September: Two million tickets to the Paralympics were sold by the day of the opening ceremony, and British broadcaster Channel 4 said at the halfway mark that the number of streaming views was double what it had been during that point in Tokyo 2020.
The next summer Olympics and Paralympics will be held in Los Angeles in 2028.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Comments / 0