Sporting Series - 01
This Paralympics🏅, India sent a contingent of 84 athletes to Paris, the highest ever, compared to 54 in the last Paralympics held in Tokyo.
Till now, India has also won the greatest number of medals in its history, with 25 medals, as detailed below.
♿Context:
In the Paralympics, athletes are categorized based on their impairment. For e.g. sports such as athletics have the most number of event classes, for example—wheelchair races, lower limb prosthesis races, etc.—whereas sports like judo 🥋only accommodate athletes with a visual impairment.
A change that I have personally observed this year is the surge in posts📲 people are writing about the Paralympics 2024. The Olympic wave hasn’t ended yet, it seems.🌊
Below are some stats about the Indian contingent at Paralympics '24:
1. In Paralympics '24, India has sent 84 athletes out of 4,400 total participants (1.91%), whereas in Olympics '24, India sent 117 athletes out of 10,500 total participants (1.11%).
2. India won 25 medals this year, compared to 4 medals in Paralympics Rio '16 and 19 in Paralympics Tokyo '20.
3. Out of the 25 medals, 24 were secured in 4 disciplines—athletics, shooting, archery, and badminton.
But this got me pondering why we clinched more medals in the Paralympics compared to the Olympics.
One might argue that the funding for our athletes increased from 26 crore in Paralympics Tokyo to 74 crore in Paralympics Paris; however, our athletes at the Olympics had a budget of over 470+ cr💰. Both had superior staff, facilities, coaches, etc.
I believe this result for India is a blend of a different mindset and a focus on specific sports.
I could go on about this topic, but I'll keep it brief! :D
What do you think could be the reason?
Starting this Monday, I'll be sharing a sports piece each week, drawing from my personal experiences!
#paris2024 #paralympics
This is so uplifting to see! Wonderful!