Paralympics 2024: From Sumit Antil to Avani Lekhara, a look at all of India’s 29 medals from Paris

The Indian contingent wrapped up their 2024 Paris Paralympics campaign with a record haul of 29 medals across five discplines, including seven gold, nine silver and 13 bronze.

The Indian para track and field athletes were the most prolific in the French capital, bagging 17 medals at the Stade de France. For context, India’s overall tally at the previous Paralympics in Tokyo three years ago was 19 medals – a record for the country at the time.

Other notable mentions include Kapil Parmar winning India’s first Paralympic medal in judo, Harvinder Singh’s historic gold in the men’s recurve individual event and several athletes setting their personal bests en route to a podium place.

With their best-ever performance in a single edition of the Olympic or Paralympic Games, the Indian contingent finished 18th in the overall medal tally.

Check out the complete medal tally here.

Archery

After the heartbreaks of the Olympics, the Indian para archers brought in much needed joy for archery fans in Paris. While the country’s compound archers struggled in the individual event, Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar – both on their Paralympics debut – combined to win a bronze medal in the mixed team compound open event. This marked India’s first-ever Paralympic medal in compound archery.

Later, the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics bronze medallist Harvinder Singh bettered the colour of his medal, clinching gold in men’s recurve individual open event. He blanked Lukasz Ciszek of Poland 6-0 in the final to win a first-ever gold in archery for India.

Singh, who holds a PhD in Economics, also finished a heartbreaking fourth in the mixed team recurve open along with Pooja. The duo lost out to Slovenia in a shoot-off in the bronze medal match.

Athletics

Athletics continues to be India’s most successful event at the Paralympics. With four gold, six silver and seven bronze medals, the Indian para track and field athletes set their personal bests, broke national records and dazzled at the Stade de France.

Sumit Antil, the reigning champion from the Tokyo Games, defended his men’s javelin F64 title with a Paralympic record throw of 70.59m.

Navdeep Singh, in men’s F41 javelin, was upgraded to a gold medal after Iran’s Sajdegh Sayah Beit was disqualified for “unsporting conduct” just minutes after winning the competition.

Praveen Kumar upgraded his silver from Tokyo to a gold in men’s high jump T64 with an Asian Record effort of 2.08m, while Dharambir took gold in men’s club throw F51.

Pranav Soorma, meanwhile, made it a double podium for India in men’s club throw F51 winning the silver behind Dharambir.

India also recorded a double podium in men’s javelin F46 with Ajeet Singh and Sundar Singh Gurjar taking home the silver and bronze medal respectively. Sharad Kumar and Mariyappan Thangavelu followed suit in men’s high jump T63 just minutes later.

The silver marked a second Paralympic medal for Sharad Kumar following his bronze in Tokyo, while Thangavelu became the first-ever Indian to win a medal in three different editions of the Paralympic Games. Thangavelu had won gold in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and silver in Tokyo, before winning a bronze in Paris.

Meanwhile, Yogesh Khatuniya in men’s discus throw F56 and Nishad Kumar in men’s high jump T47 retained their silver medals.

Sachin Khilari also won a silver in men’s F46 shotput, while Hokato Sema Hotozhe took the bronze in men’s F57 shotput.

The Paris Games also marked independent India’s first-ever medals in track events across the Olympics or Paralympics.

Preethi Pal earned the distinction of being the first to do it with a bronze in women’s 100m T35 and then followed it up with yet another bronze in women’s 200m T35, just a day later.

Deepthi Jeevanji in women’s 400m T20 and Simran Sharma in women’s 200m T12 also won a bronze medal apiece.

Badminton

India extended their dominance in men’s singles SL3 badminton with Nitesh Kumar clinching the gold medal in the event in the absence of veteran and reigning champion Pramod Bhagat.

Up against Daniel Bethell of Great Britain against whom he trailed 0-9 in head to head encounters, Nitesh Kumar was forced to battle hard. The Indian prevailed 21-14, 18-21, 23-21 to win the gold medal.

Meanwhile, Suhas Yathiraj retained his silver medal in men’s singles SL4 as he went down to home favourite Lucas Mazur in the gold medal match.

India celebrated a double podium in women’s singles SU5 with the top two seeds Thulasimathi Murugesan and Manisha Ramadass finishing with silver and bronze respectively behind China’s Yang Qiu Xia.

Nithya Sre Sivan also finished on the podium in women’s singles SH6, beating Rina Marlina of Indonesia in the bronze medal match.

Judo

India won their first-ever Paralympic medal in judo through Kapil Parmar. The 24-year-old from Madhya Pradesh bagged the bronze medal in men’s 60kg category to add to his impressive tally of an Asian Para Games silver and a World Games bronze.

Shooting

Shooting once again provided India with a rich haul of medals in Paris. Avani Lekhara defended her women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1 crown with Mona Agarwal taking bronze in the same event to complete a double podium. This was the first double podium of the Paris Games for India.

Later, Manish Narwal won a silver in men’s 10m air pistol SH1 while Rubina Francis pocketed a bronze in women’s 10m air pistol SH1.