Spanish sport sings its praises with an unforgettable Paris 2024 Paralympic Games

2024 became the year of the Paralympic Games. With them, the Spanish sport put together a great performance to achieve the goal set before the event: achieving the forty medals.

Paris This is the talisman of the best Spanish performance since London 2012. Because, for the first time since then, Spain has achieved a quarantine that has been the goal set since the weeks before the great event in Paris. A sum of seven gold, eleven silver and twenty-two bronze They equaled that number, on top of the thirty-six medals at Tokyo 2021 and the thirty-one at Rio 2016 and just one step away from the forty-two at London 2012.

In fact, in the memory of the Spanish sport remains the symbolic forty-one medals who finally did not climb the medal table. The disqualification of Elena Congost and her guide Mia Carol In the T12 category marathon he toured the world. Both finished third, but Carol briefly let go of the rope that joined the two of them at the finish line, when they took the medal. He was able to do this because of a trip that prompted Congost to help him so he wouldn’t fall. However, the judges made a literal interpretation of the regulations, establishing that the athlete and guide must always be joined by a rope, and left them without a medal.

This is the sad note of a brilliant performance by the Spanish team. Swimming, triathlon, athletics and cycling They are the medal leader of a group of one hundred and fifty athleteswith one hundred and thirty-nine of them with disabilities and eleven guides, who performed at a high level throughout.

A performance that comes in an unparalleled setting like Paris. The 2024 Paralympic Games are an example of inclusion and equalitywith the same places as the Olympic Games and with postcards to remember in the capital of France. Football for the blind at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, triathlon around the Seine and Les Invalides or a Grand Palais dressed to the nines are some of the places for an event where the public makes a difference and where France is focused on itself. athletes and the entire Paralympic family.

Seven gold full of emotions

seven gold the sport was conquered by the Spanish in Paris. In swimming they are for Anastasia Dmytriv (100 breaststroke, SB8), who opened an account at only sixteen years old after an exhibition. That’s not the only gold in the pool, because Inigo Llopis He followed that up with another gold victory in the 100 backstroke S8.

Athletics and triathlon also rose to the top of the podium. Yassine Ouhdadi He did not give any options in the 5000 meters in the T13 category, where in a display of power and control he went in time to the gold medal. They did the same in triathlon Daniel Molina in the PTS3 category and Susan Rodriguez with your guide Sarah Perez in PTVI 1, trials where they never gave the sensation of being caught by their rivals.

Cycling closed the number of victories. In time trials, Ricardo Ten get gold in class C1, while Sergio Garrote He did it in H2. Both started out as great candidates for success in their trials and their achievements are the signature performance for the memory of both.

Eleven silvers divided into five modalities

Spain had more success in the French event. All in all, they achieved eleven silverwhich is divided into four achieved in swimming, three in athletics, two in road cycling, one in track cycling and the added one in triathlon.

The pool, one of the biggest medal places in Spanish Paralympic sport, increased its harvest with four silvers. Núria Marques He added a double silver medal in the 100 backstroke S9 and in the 200 medley SM9 (where there was a Spanish double on the podium after ‘Tasy’ Dmytriv’s bronze). Tony Ponce in the 100 breaststroke SB5 and Martha Fernandez In the 100 freestyle S3 they were also declared Paralympic runners-up.

Athletics are not far behind. Sarah Martinez opened the silver harvest in Paris in the T12 long jump category and took the baton David Pineda in 400 meters T20 and Alberto Suarez. His fortieth medal was his in the T12 marathon, which closed the account for the Spanish team.

Apart from this, four more silvers were won. Cycling achieved three, opened on the track team sprint quartet in the joint event for classes covering C1 to C5 by Ricardo Ten, Alfonso Cabello and Pablo Jaramillo. They rode on the road Eduardo Santas in the C3 time trial and Sergio Garrote to seal his double podium in the H2 online handbike test. Triathlon also wears silver with Martha French and his second place in the PTS4 class.

Rain of bronzes with twenty-two more medals

They also stood out on the medal table twenty two bronze medals. T’s conquest has great symbolic valueAresa Perales in the 50 backstroke S5 of swimming: this is his twenty-eighth medal at the Paralympic Games and with it he fulfills his wish to equal the number of podiums achieved at the Olympic Games by one of his great references, Michael Phelps.

It was one of nine bronze medals won in swimming. They are also third Miguel Luque (50 breaststroke SB3), Enrique Alhambra (100 butterflies S13), Maria Delgado (100 back S12), Martha Fernandez (50 backstroke S3 and 50 breaststroke SB3) and Anastasia Dmytriv (200 style SM9). In addition, the medley 4×100 freestyle relay reached the podium at that position with 34 points (Núria Marquès, Óscar Salguero, Dmytriv and José Antonio Marí) and at 40 points (José Ramón Cantero, Delgado, Emma Feliu and Alhambra).

Four bronzes came in athletics. The T11 long jump left a double third place in the hands of Alba Garcia and of Joan Munar. Although, for a double, the two bronzes achieved by Alvaro del Amo in the F11 category, where he reached the podium in both the shot put and discus throw.

Cycling added three more coppers to the yield. On the track he achieved the first Spanish third place Ricardo Ten in individual pursuit C1. He joined later Alfonso Cabello in the C4-5 time trial kilometers, as he closed the account on the route Damian Ramos in the C4 time trial.

Six other sports won bronze. They did it hand in hand Juan Antonio Saavedra (shooting, mixed ten meter rifle prone R3), Nil Riudavets (triathlon, PTS4), Judith Rodriguez (fencing, foil), Daniel Caverzaschi and Martín de la Puente (first medal in the history of the Spanish wheelchair tennis Games, in doubles), Martha Arce (judo, -57 kg, J12) and Ander Cepas (table tennis, class 9 individual tournament).

The end of the ‘Carballeda era’ and the beginning of the ‘Alberto Durán era’

The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games are also the last major championship with Miguel Carballeda at the head of the Spanish Paralympic Committee. After twenty years at the head of the organization, Carballeda announced at the closing of the event in France that he would not run for re-election to the position. Thus, he ended a period in which he changed the Spanish Paralympic sport both in terms of structure and visibility, facts that earned him the Grand Cross of Sports Merit and was appointed as a life member of the General Assembly of the CPE .

Headed the highest Spanish organization since last October 24 of Alberto Duran. With the Spanish Paralympic Committee since 2017 and vice president since 2020, he will combine the position he held at ONCE with the desire to continue breaking social barriers and maintain the position of Spanish Paralympic sport as an international benchmark.