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Prime Minister Narendra Modi intercting with India athletes for 2024 Paris Paralympics (X)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated India’s ‘special and historical’ performance at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to social media to celebrate India’s para-athletes who produced the country’s best-ever performance at the Paralympics in Paris.
“Paralympics 2024 have been special and historical,” PM Modi posted on X.
“India is overjoyed that our incredible para-athletes have brought home 29 medals, which is the best ever performance since India’s debut at the Games.”
“This achievement is due to the unwavering dedication and indomitable spirit of our athletes. Their sporting performances have given us many moments to remember and inspired several upcoming athletes,” he added.
Paralympics 2024 have been special and historical.India is overjoyed that our incredible para-athletes have brought home 29 medals, which is the best ever performance since India’s debut at the Games.
This achievement is due to the unwavering dedication and indomitable spirit… pic.twitter.com/tME7WkFgS3
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 8, 2024
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Differently-abled but exceptionally resolute, India’s para-athletes would look back at their Paralympics campaign with pride as most of the established names lived up to expectations and many talented greenhorns made the big stage their own in a record-smashing medal haul of 29.
Seven of these 29 medals are gold, which is another first for the country that started to make its presence felt only in the 2016 edition, where it won four medals. The upswing in performance after that has been meteoric with Tokyo yielding 19, a number that was surpassed this time.
Not to forget, a lot of medal-winning performances here were record efforts and personal bests, demonstrating that the athletes have made significant progress as far as their self-belief is concerned.
The 29 medals in five sports, including a whopping 17 at the track and field events, have ensured that the country will end in the top 20 of the mega-event that was once again dominated by China with over 200 medals.
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India is still far away from becoming a force at the Olympic level but the nation has certainly emerged as a force to be reckoned with in the competition for the differently-abled.
The government did its bit with increased spending on training, recovery and support staff. The sports ministry had 59 para-athletes in its Target Olympic Podium Scheme roster, 50 of whom qualified for Paris.
(With inputs from Agencies)
