Year in review: Paris 23 World Championships top moments

Never before the Paralympic host city held the Para Athletics World Championships the year before the Games. Paris was the first and French fans had a once in a lifetime opportunity to watch first-hand the athletes who will be the stars of track, jump and throw events in 2024.

The Charlety Stadium welcomed over 1,300 athletes from 107 nations during nine days. 

Let’s travel back to July and remember the top moments of Paris 23.

Chinese champions

China topped the medals table in the French capital with 16 golds making a strong statement ahead of next year’s Paralympic Games.

Three athletes returned home with double gold. Yao Juan won the women’s discus and shot put F64, while Zou Lijuan triumphed in the women’s 100m and 200m T35 and Zou Lijuan in the women’s javelin and shot put F34 (setting a new world record in the event).

Liu Li (women’s shot put F32), Sun Pengxiang (men’s javelin F41), Bo Qin (men’s club throw F32) and Wen Xiaoyan (women’s long jump T37) were the other Chinese world champions to break world records at the Worlds.

The new king on the block

The battle of the blade runners is always one of the most awaited events of the World Championships and the men’s 100m T64 final certainly lived up to the hype. 

Italy’s Maxcel Amo Manu claimed his first major international title with a time of 10.71 leaving behind Paralympic and world champions. The Italian returned for more on the final day winning also the 200m T64.

Manu is certainly a one to watch again in Paris at the Paralympic Games.

Ambralievable 

Speaking of Italian sprinters, what about Ambra Sabatini?

The Italian star became the first woman with an above the knee amputation to run the 100m in under 14 seconds leading an Italian clean sweep in the 100m T63 final.

Sabatini clocked 13.98 with Martina Caironi in second and Monica Contrafatto in third. After the race, the Italian trio repeated the famous “Charlie’s Angels”-pose of their clean sweep at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Dominant Debrunner

Swiss wheelchair racer Catherine Debrunner returned to Paris just two months after she received the Laureus Award for her impressive 2022. Could she emulate that season in 2023, was one the most asked questions at the Worlds.

What a best way to answer that than becoming the most successful at Paris 23? Debrunner was the only one to leave the French capital with five World Championships medals in the baggage, four of them gold.

The T53-athlete won the women’s 100m T53, 400m T53, 800m T53, 1500m T54 and 5000m T54.

USA flying high

Two U.S. high jumpers produced some of the most memorable moments of this year’s World Championships. 

Ezra Frech was the youngest athlete in action at the World Championships in Dubai four years ago, when he finished seventh. Last July he literally jumped to first place setting a new world record (1.95m) en route to the men’s high jump T63 gold. 

Coaching Frech was teammate Roderick Townsend-Roberts, who just two days earlier had taken his fourth world title with a new world record in the men’s high jump T47 (2.16m). It was a very emotional event for Townsend-Roberts as the first time his wife had the opportunity to watch him competing at the Worlds.

Brilliant Brazil

Brazilian athletes also made history at this year’s Worlds taking the nation to the second place in the medals table (only two gold medals behind powerhouse China). Brazil had more podium finishes (47) than any other nation at the Charlety Stadium.

Elizabeth Rodrigues (F53) was again one of the stars of the Brazilian team. She grabbed two gold medals setting world records in the women’s discus F53 and shot put F54. 

Jerusa Geber (women’s 100m T11 and 200m T11) and Ricardo Gomes (men’s 100m T37 and 200m T37) were the other Brazilian athletes with visiting the top of the podium twice in Paris.

Lemos wins battle of plot twists

The men’s shot put F38 final also took the title of event with most plot twists at Paris 23. Three world records were smashed in an epic battle won by Colombia’s Jose Gregorio Lemos.

The Paralympic champion fought off Kuwait’s Faisal Sorour and Great Britain’s Michael Jenkins, who had each broken the men’s shot put F38 record during the event. But that was before Lemos launched a massive 18.26m throw to extend the lead even further and take the gold.

It was not his only gold in Paris as the Colombian also picked another victory in the men's javelin F38.

Complete results, medallists and all records broken at the Paris 23 Para Athletics World Championships can be found here.