A record-breaking Paralympic Games came to an end for India on Sunday, and what a memorable 10 days it was. Beginning with Avani Lekhara's gold medal on the shooting range and ending with Navdeep's javelin gold, everything in between was historic too, as India's para-athletes scripted the country's greatest Paralympics campaign ever.
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This is India's story at the Paris Paralympics, as told by the numbers:
7-9-13
Seven gold medals, more than ever before. 29 medals, ten more than ever before. Records were shattered. Incredible stories were told. From India's perspective, Paris 2024 will long be remembered for the exploits of its para athletes.
18
India finished in the top 20 of the medals tally, and barely just missed out on the top 15. India were one gold away from 15th, while Spain is above India with just two more silver medals.
1
There were various firsts in the Paralympics for India. Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar in the mixed team event won India's first Paralympic medal in recurve archery. Kapil Parmar was the first Indian Paralympic medallist in judo, Harvinder Singh won the country's first gold in para archery as well.
Also, Hokato Hotozhe Sema, on debut at this stage, became the first Paralympian from Nagaland, while also becoming the first medallist from his state, in the men's shot put F57.
3
Avani Lekhara (gold in women's 10m Air Rifle SH1) and Mariyappan Thangavelu (bronze in men's high jump T63) won the third Paralympics medals of their respective careers, as many as any other Indian in history. Only Joginder Singh Bedi and Devendra Jhajharia had won three medals before Paris.
3.05
For Navdeep to even be in contention for a gold medal, he needed to considerably better his personal best in the men's javelin F41 final. He did just that, by flinging the javelin 3.05m further than he ever has. Talk about bringing your best to the biggest stage. Eventually, he stood on the top step of the podium, with a little bit of help from his Iranian rival's disqualification.
4
There were four events in Paris with two Indians on the podium.
Dharambir and Pranav Soorma finished first and second in the men's club throw F51. Mona Agarwal finished in third in the same event that Avani won gold in. Sharad Kumar and Mariyappan Thangavelu finished second and third in the men's high jump T63, while Thulasimathi M and Manisha Ramadass also finished second and third in the women's singles SU5 badminton.
7
Praveen Kumar came into the men's high jump T64 final with the third highest personal best in the field. Seven jumps later, he had won gold. He had cleared seven heights in just one attempt each, including the gold-medal winning height of 2.08m. His failures at 2.10m didn't matter, because by then he'd upgraded his Tokyo silver to a Paris gold.
10
10 Indian para athletes became multiple Paralympic medallists in Paris, led by the sensational Sumit Antil. Harvinder Singh, Praveen Kumar, Suhas Yathiraj, Nishad Kumar, Sharad Kumar, Manish Narwal, Yogesh Kathuniya, Sundar Singh Gurjar all followed up medals in Tokyo with another in Paris, while Preethi Pal won two bronze medals here in Paris.
There were also 10 female medallists from the Indian contingent, who won 11 medals between them.
24.75
After 6 races in 4 days, it all came down to the women's 200m T12 final for Simran to leave Paris with a medal that she so richly deserved, having come up just short (by 0.05s) in the 100m final. Eventually, she won bronze in style, with a personal best time of 24.75s.
1 with 2
On Paralympics debut, Preethi Pal was the only Indian para athlete to win multiple medals in Paris. She won bronze medals in both the 100m and 200m T35 events.
70.59
Sumit Antil had a stunning night in Tokyo three years ago, when he broke the world record three times. Since then, he's that world record of his further up. He couldn't quite match that in Paris, but he breached his Tokyo mark three times here in Paris, with a best throw of 70.59m to set a new Paralympic record.
249.7
Avani Lekhara defended her gold medal in the women's 10m air rifle SH1 category, and on the way to it, she broke her own Paralympic record that she set in Tokyo. Avani finished with a total of 249.7, which won her gold thanks to a poor shot from her Korean rival (who had been leading until then), who shot a 6.8 with her final shot.