PARIS, France (Sep. 1, 2024) - The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will be etched in the memories of the fans, athletes and the entire Para Taekwondo fraternity.
The audience were left spellbound as the action began at the glass-roofed iconic Grand Palais - champions fought with grit, determination and passion. There was another level of passion and interest seen among the crowd that motivated the Para Taekwondoins all the more to win medals for the nations - many medals were won for the first time ever.
This was also the first time that the Para Taekwondo stars showed their explosivity at this biggest stage infront of crowd, after audience-less Tokyo 2020.
Even before the Paris 2024 Paralympic started, records were made with 19 new nations making the Games through ranking, qualification and bipartite slots. There were also two Refugee Paralympic Team athletes and two Neutral Paralympic Athlete qualifying for these Games.
Altogether 121 Para Taekwondoins (61 men and 60 women) from 52 countries plus 2 RPT and 2 NPA athletes opened the Games 10 medal events (five weight categories for each gender) at the Grand Palais only to return home to achieving historic firsts for their nations.
In Tokyo 2020, only 69 (35 men and 34 women) from 37 nations took part in six medal events and 17 nations won medals. A number that should have been higher if not for COVID.
Paris definitely exceeded our expectations as 23+2 (NPA+RPT) won at least one medal - out of which 10 NPCs + 1 Refugee Paralympic Team athlete won medals for the first time ever that include - Azerbaijan, Chinese Taipei, France, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Mongolia, Nepal, and Refugee Para Athlete.
Six nations claimed the historic first gold medals at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Paris was all in all a huge success for Para Taekwondo in terms of competition, explosivity, medals, interest, crowd, venue, viewership and media coverage.
And we aim for more as we look ahead to the next period of Paralympic cycle - Los Angeles 2028 is just four years away.
