The just-concluded Paralympics in Paris were packed with moments of greatness, many of them involving African athletes. New records were set, legends added to their Paralympic portfolio, and new stars emerged. Below are ten highlights from the Paris Games involving African Paralympic athletes.
Morocco’s Fatima Ezzahra El Idrissi Closes the Paralympics in Record-Smashing Style
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Fatima Ezzahra El Idrissi of Team Morocco celebrates crossing the finish line and taking the Gold Medal during the Women's T12 Marathon on day eleven of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games on September 08, 2024 in Paris, France.
Finishing with 15 medals, Morocco’s contingent won the most medals of any African country in Paris and also tallied its highest haul at a Paralympics to date. On the final day of the Paris games, Fatima Ezzahra El Idrissi, who had won silver in the women’s 1,500m T12 days before, went on to demolish the world record in the women’s T12 marathon, running the Esplanade des Invalides course in 2 hours, 48 minutes and 36 seconds, taking a whopping nearly six minutes off the previous record.
El Idrissi’s race was so dominant, she finished nearly ten minutes ahead of silver-winning compatriot Meryem En-Nourhi. “I wasn’t running for a time, only for a medal,” El Idrissi said. “I wasn’t aiming to get the world record, just to get the gold, and now I have both.”
Tunisia’s throwing queen pulls off the gold medal double again!
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Gold medallist Raoua Tlili of Team Tunisia celebrates on the podium during the medal ceremony after the Women's Shot Put F41 final on day two of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at Stade de France on August 30, 2024 in Paris, France.
Raoua Tlili’s Paralympic exploits will be revered for generations to come. Competing in her fifth games, the “Throwing Queen” came in as the overwhelming favorite in the women’s shot put and discus throw in the F41 category, having done the gold medal double across both events in Rio and Tokyo. For the third Paralympics in a row, the 34-year-old successfully pulled off the double again.
“This medal is the most important medal because it’s not easy for me,” she said after winning the shot put gold. “To be able to throw in the shot put, you need a lot of energy and lots of strength training, especially for (those with) short stature.” A few days later, she won the gold in the discus throw, reinforcing her dominance. These medals take her Paralympic gold medal tally to seven.
Nigerian powerlifters raise the bar even higher
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Onyinyechi Mark of Team Nigeria reacts during the Women's Up to 61kg Powerlifting on day nine of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at Porte de La Chapelle Arena on September 06, 2024 in Paris, France.
Of the seven medals Nigeria won at the Paris Paralympics, four of them came from Paralympic powerlifting events. The only two gold medals were won in spectacular fashion, as Folashade Oluwafemiayo and Onyinyechi Mark set new world records at the finals of their respective events. Oluwafemiayo, defending her title in the women’s up to 86kg event, beat her previous mark of 165kg in back-to-back fashion, benching 166kg in the second round of the final, then increasing the bar to 167kg in the third round.
Mark, a Paralympics debutant, broke the women’s up to 61kg world record in similar fashion. She lifted 147kg in her final regular attempt before upping to a 150kg powerlift moments later, which confirmed her first Paralympic gold medal. “I feel excited and so happy. I’ve worked so hard to be in these Games today, my expectation was for me to win my gold,” Mark said. “I’m here today to win, I did it; I’m so happy. I will train harder to make sure I will get my gold back again in LA.”
Ethiopia’s 1,500m queens reign supreme
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Yayesh Gate Tesfaw of Team Ethiopia (L) and her guide Kindu Sisay Girma celebrate by the scoreboard after winning and setting a new world record time of 4:27.68 in the Women's 1500m T11 Final on day five of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at Stade de France on September 2, 2024 in Paris, France.
In Tokyo, Paralympic runner Tigist Mengistu won the first Paralympic gold medal for Ethiopia in the women’s 1,500m T13. Mengistu followed that feat by successfully defending her title, which has now opened the gates for more medals for her country at the Paris Games. About 48 hours later, fellow Ethiopian Paralympic runner Yayesh Gate Tesfaw won the women’s 1,500m T11 gold medal in stunning fashion, smashing the world record she set at the World Championships in Kobe, Japan by about four seconds.
“I knew I had the world record already and I am happy to break it again. I needed to do it again,” Tesfaw said. “It means even more to do it here, in the Paralympic arena and at the Paralympic Games of Paris 2024.”
In addition to these gold medals, Paralympic runner Silesh Yigzaw won silver in the men’s 1,500m T11, bringing the Ethiopian haul to three medals. This is also the total number of Paralympic medals Ethiopia had won prior to the Paris Games.Skander Athmani and Saifi Nassima lead Algeria’s gold medal haul
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Skander Djamil Athmani of Team Algeria celebrates winning the gold medal with new Paralympic Record after competing in the Paralympic Athletics Men's 100m - T13 Final on day four of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at the Stade de France on September 1, 2024 in Paris, France.
Coming off setting a new 400m T13 world record at this year’s World Championships in Kobe, Skander Djamil Athmani was poised for more success in Paris. At the 100m T13 final, Athman not only won gold, he did it in remarkable fashion by setting a new Paralympics record with a race time of 10.42 seconds. After a phenomenal debut in Tokyo, where he barely missed out on 100m T13 gold by 0.01 seconds, Athman had his sights set on the double and, days after his first triumph, he retained the 400m T13 Paralympic gold medal.
Athmani now holds the Paralympic records in both the 100m T13 and 400m T13, and his achievements set the tone for a productive Paralympics outing for Algeria, the African country with the most gold medals in Paris. Guendouz Brahim won a Paralympic canoeing gold medal in the men’s kayak single 200m KL3, while Safia Djelal and Abdelkader Bouamer won gold in women’s shot put F57 and men’s 60kg Paralympic judo (J1).
The other Algerian double Paralympics medalist in Paris is Nassima Saifi, who bounced back from a silver medal outing in Tokyo to reclaim Paralympic gold in the women’s discus throw F57. Saifi first won gold in the event at the London Games in 2012 and defended her title four years later. She now has three Paralympic gold medals in the same event, and three more podium finishes, including her women’s shot put F57 bronze medal win in Paris — the same event she won silver during the Rio Games.Simoné Kruger delivers gold medal moment for South Africa
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Silver medalist, Yingli Li of Team People's Republic of China, gold medalist Simone Kruger of Team South Africa and bronze medalist, Xiomara Saldarriaga Hernandez of Team Colombia pose for a photo during the Women's Discus Throw - F38 medal ceremony on day ten of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at Stade de France on September 07, 2024 in Paris, France.
South Africa won six medals in Paris, led by Mpumelelo Mhlongo’s two medals, the men’s 100m T44 gold and the men’s 200m T44 bronze. SA’s second gold medal was earned by Simoné Kruger, the 19-year-old women’s discus throw F38 champion. On the path to winning her first Paralympic medal, Kruger also set a new Paralympic record, with a throwing distance of 38.70 meters, just 12 centimeters off the world record she set at the World Championships in Kobe a few months back.
“It was an amazing thing for me to be in such a close competition, the closer the competition the more I know I have to do better,” Kruger said after winning gold with a margin of just 6 centimeters over China’s Yingli Li (38.64 meters). “[Any of us] could have got the medal. I think with the distances, if I threw what I did earlier this year maybe it was going to be easier but I didn’t, so just having this intense competition was amazing for me.”
Rehab Ahmed finally reaches the summit
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Gold medalist Rehab Ahmed of Team Egypt poses for a photo during a medal ceremony for the Women's up to 55KG Paralympic Powerlifting Final on day eight of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at Porte de La Chapelle Arena on September 05, 2024 in Paris, France.
In Rio and Tokyo, Rehab Ahmed came incredibly close to becoming a Paralympic champion, but had to settle for silver on both occasions. The Egyptian Paralympic powerlifter would not be denied in Paris, as she emphatically won gold in the women’s up to 55kg event. In the final, her successful 117kg lift in the first round would have been enough to confirm her first Paralympic gold, but she went on to add 4kg to her successful second-round attempt, putting extra emphasis on her will to triumph this time around.“To get a gold medal at the Paralympic Games has been my aim and dream since I started powerlifting,” Ahmed said. “This is the third Paralympic Games for me. I went to Rio 2016 and got a silver medal. I went to Tokyo 2020 and got a silver medal. Now, in Paris, I won a gold and I am very, very happy.”
A first badminton medal for Nigeria and Africa at the Paralympics/Olympics
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(L-R) Silver medalist, Qonitah Ikhtiar of Team Indonesia, gold medalist, Zuxian Xiao of Team People’s Republic of China, and bronze medalist, Mariam Eniola Bolaji of Team Nigeria, pose for a photo during the Women's Singles SL3 medal ceremony on day five of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at Porte de La Chapelle Arena on September 02, 2024 in Paris, France.
Despite a niggling ankle injury a month before the games, Mariam Eniola Bolaji powered through in the women’s Paralympic badminton SL13 bronze medal match. Bolaji defeated Ukraine’s Oksana Kozyna in straight sets to become the first Nigerian and African to win a medal in Badminton at either the Paralympics or the Olympics. A former Paralympic tennis player, Bolaji switched on the advice of her former coach Bello Oyebanji, who died in a car accident shortly before the Tokyo games. “My late coach was the one that brought me through, he trained me and encouraged me,” she said after her win. “The medal is dedicated to him. He would be very, very happy and would be saying ‘I’m proud of you.’”
Samson Opiyo puts Kenya on the medal table
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Gold medalist Brian Lionel Impellizzeri of Team Argentina (C), Silver medalist Samson Opiyo of Team Kenya (L) and Bronze medalist Mateus Evangelista Cardoso of Team Brazil (R) pose for a photo during the Men's Long Jump T37 Medal Ceremony on day six of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at Stade de France on September 03, 2024 in Paris, France.
Kenya failed to win a single medal at the Paralympics in Tokyo, and it would have almost been a repeat scenario in Paris if Samson Opiyo hadn’t won the men’s long jump T37 silver medal. Competing at his first Paralympics, Opiyo wasn’t a podium finish favorite, as he hadn’t yet won a medal on the international stage before the Paris games. In his fourth jump of the final round, Opiyo hit a personal best 6.20 meters to vault into second place, just behind Argentina’s Brian Lionel.
“I am simply over the moon,” Opiyo said. “I want to dedicate this to all those who have supported me and the millions of Kenyans who watched, especially my family.”
Donald Ramaphadi and Lucas Sithole write African history in wheelchair tennis
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Lucas Sithole and Donald Ramphadi of Team South Africa celebrate with their bronze medal during the Men's Quad Doubles on day seven of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at Roland Garros on September 04, 2024 in Paris, France.
Last year, Donald Ramaphadi became the first South African tennis player in over four decades to win a Roland Garros title, after winning the French Open mixed quad doubles. A decade before that, Lucas Sithole won the 2013 U.S. Open wheelchair tennis quad title and followed with a doubles triumph at the 2015 Australian Open. In Paris, Ramaphadi and Sithole teamed up to secure the first Paralympic medal in wheelchair tennis for Africa, winning their bronze medal match 6-2 4-6 10-8 against Brazilians Leandro Pena and Ymanitu Silva.
“It is our first big medal playing together, and we’re very happy to write history,” Sithole said. “I was so happy to play with Donald today. He brought his A-game, even though he was nervous and made double faults – he owes me a whiskey… We were here to win today, not just represent.”