From Sumit Antil to Avani Lekhara: A look at all 29 medals India won from Paris

The Indian contingent concluded their 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris with a record 29 medals across five disciplines, including seven gold, nine silver and 13 bronze.

The Indian para-athletes were the most prolific in the French capital, winning 17 medals at the Stade de France. In comparison, India’s total medal tally at the previous Paralympics in Tokyo three years ago was 19 – a record for the country at the time.

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

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.

View the full medal table here.

Archery

After the heart-wrenching Olympics, India’s para-archers brought much-needed cheer to archers in Paris. While the country’s compound archers struggled in the individual event, Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar – both making their Paralympic debuts – combined to win a bronze medal in the mixed team compound open event. This was India’s first-ever Paralympic medal in compound archery.

Later, Tokyo 2020 Paralympic bronze medallist Harvinder Singh surpassed his medal colour and won gold in the men’s individual open recurve event, beating Poland’s Lukasz Ciszek 6-0 in the final to win India’s first-ever gold in archery.

Singh, who has a PhD in economics, also finished a heartbreaking fourth in the mixed team recurve open, partnering Pooja. The duo lost to Slovenia in a shoot-off in the bronze medal match.

Athletics

Athletics remains India’s most successful event at the Paralympics. With four gold, six silver and seven bronze medals, India’s para-athletes set personal bests, broke national records and shone brightly at the Stade de France.

Sumit Antil, the reigning Tokyo Olympic champion, defended his title in the men’s F64 javelin throw with a Paralympic record of 70.59 metres.

Navdeep Singh, men’s javelin F41, was awarded a gold medal after Iran’s Sajdegh Sayah Beit was disqualified for “unsportsmanlike conduct” just minutes after winning the event.

Praveen Kumar improved his Tokyo silver to gold in the men’s high jump T64 with an Asian record of 2.08m, while Dharambir took gold in the men’s club throw F51.

Meanwhile, Pranav Soorma secured India a double podium in the men’s club throwing F51, taking silver behind Dharambir.

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

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

Meanwhile, Yogesh Khatuniya in discus throw (F56) and Nishad Kumar in high jump (T47) retained their silver medals.

Sachin Khilari also won silver in the men’s shot put (F46) event while Hokato Sema Hotozhe won bronze in the men’s shot put (F57) event.

At the Paris Games, independent India won medals for the first time in a track event at the Olympic or Paralympic Games.

Preethi Pal was the first to win bronze in the women’s 100m T35 and a day later she did it again with bronze in the women’s 200m T35.

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

Badminton

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

Against Daniel Bethell of Great Britain, against whom he was 0-9 down in head-to-head matches, Nitesh Kumar had to fight hard. The Indian won 21-14, 18-21, 23-21 and won the gold medal.

Meanwhile, Suhas Yathiraj retained his silver medal in the men’s singles SL4 after losing to favourite Lucas Mazur in the gold medal battle.

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

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

Judo

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

To shoot

Shooting once again brought India 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 India’s first double podium at the Paris Games.

Later, Manish Narwal won silver in the 10m air pistol event for men SH1, while Rubina Francis took bronze in the 10m air pistol event for women SH1.