Spain maintains its upward momentum at the Paralympic Games in Paris

The first Summer Paralympic Games was held in Rome 1960. However, Spain did not debut in the event until the third edition, Tel Aviv 1968. Since then, it has been present in all editions (since Seoul 1988, with the same venue as the Olympic Games ), which means that, with its presence in Paris 2024, Spanish sport completed its fifteenth participation in the Paralympic Games out of seventeen possible.

In it he achieved his goal. The Spanish Paralympic Committee marked the forty challenge medals before the French event began and it became fulfilled to the letter. This is an upward bet after previous editions, with a trend emphasized. Therefore, the big challenge is keep the positive dynamic which dragged from 31 medals at Rio 2016, the worst Spanish tally since 1984, to 36 at Tokyo 2021. More competition in terms of participation and countries present has made a dent in the table of Spain’s medal in recent years.

But the goal was achieved, with that’s forty medals in the letter. To look for a statistical ‘but’, only seven of them were gold (eleven silver and twenty-two bronze), the worst figure since 1980, but this does not detract in the least from the merit. on a remarkable high where the Spanish delegation bid farewell to the Paralympic Games. The challenge was met thanks to a good overall performance by all the athletes.

Also, thanks to two bets launched by Paralympic sports to try to make the results profitable. The first, the commitment to change in the distribution of scholarships in the ADOP plana subject that is always complicated depending on the case. In it, priority is not only given to past results, but also to the projection of athletes who have not yet achieved great success. This allowed part of the team, which was perhaps not yet at the top of its sport, to have more ways to take a step forward in Paris.

The second, the maturation of Paralympic Promises project launched in recent years with the aim of attracting new talents to practice sports. According to data from the CPE, 36% of Spanish medalists in Paris went through this training program in previous seasons, a sign that Spanish Paralympic sport, in addition to maintaining the veteran totems perfectly established on the front line, would also like to add youth for future appointments.

Looking to the future, yes, there will be pending challenges. As the Paralympic body itself pointed out, keep the positive momentum going and over forty medals in Los Angeles is one of them. To try to achieve this, the CPE has issued its public request this Sunday to the CSD to match the aid from ‘Team Spain’ with respect to Olympic sport.

Another one will follow promoting women’s skills of sports. Only 38% of the Spanish athletes present in Paris are women, with swimming and athletics having a large list of female presence but in other sports far from equality. There are several purposes for try to keep the momentum going after a good performance in Paris.

Spain’s medals at the Summer Paralympic Games (gold-silver-bronze)

-Tel Aviv 1968: 4 medals (0-3-1)
-Heidelberg 1972: 4 medals (0-4-0)
-Toronto 1976: 12 medals (4-6-2)
-Arnhem 1980: 23 medals (​1-13-9)
-New York and Stoke Mandeville 1984: 44 medals (10-22-12)
-​Seoul 1988: 43 medals (18-13-12)
-Barcelona 1992: 107 medals (34-31-42)
-Atlanta 1996: 106 medals (39-31-36)
-Sydney 2000: 102 medals (37-28-37)
-Athens 2004: 71 medals (20-27-24)
-Beijing 2008: 58 medals (15-21-22)
-London 2012: 42 medals (8-18-16)
-Rio de Janeiro 2016: 31 medals (9-14-8)
-Tokyo 2021: 36 medals (9-15-12)
-Paris 2024: 40 medals (7-11-22)​