Paris 2024: Best Para athletics moments
The USA’s Hunter Woodhall won his first Paralympic gold medal and celebrated with his wife and Olympic champion Tara Davis-Woodhall Catherine Debrunner was unstoppable, winning five golds and a silver at her third Games Timothee Adolphe won two silver medals in front of a huge home crowd that included French President Emmanuel Macron 18 Sep 2024
The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games were packed with memorable moments, including athletic feats and historic firsts, that took place at stunning venues in front of a vocal crowd.
We will share three moments from each sport that made the Games very special.
Top moment
The USA’s Hunter Woodhall won his first Paralympic gold medal, finishing ahead of world record holder Johannes Floors of Germany in the men’s 400m T62 final at the Stade de France. He ran to the stands to celebrate the victory with his wife and Olympian Tara Davis-Woodhall.
In early August, it was Hunter cheering on Tara, as she won Olympic women’s long jump gold. They’ve since become known as the golden couple of Paris 2024.
“Quite a few people have told us that we have made a really special moment in the Games,” Hunter said.
“We’re really trying not to read too much into it, we’re trying to be ourselves and we’re just so grateful that we get to share the sport that we love so much with so many new people and we hope that people have felt a little bit of the emotions that we’ve felt over the past month.”
The Paris power couple 💙🤍❤️@tar___ruh Olympic gold in Paris 🥇 ✅@hunterwoodhall Paralympic gold in Paris 🥇 ✅
— Paralympic Games (@Paralympics) September 6, 2024
The two of them are each other's biggest supporters 😍#Paralympics | #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/SRCBJbJp66
Hunter and Tara met at a track meet in Idaho when they were 17 years old. Hunter made his Paralympic debut at Rio 2016, winning a silver medal in the men’s 200m T44 and bronze in the 400m. Both Hunter and Tara competed in Tokyo, approximately one year before they got married, with Hunter winning Paralympic bronze in the 400m T62.
Biggest surprise
Catherine Debrunner was unstoppable. She won five golds and a silver – the most of any athlete in the sport in Paris.
The Swiss star beat world-record holder and Tokyo 2020 Paralympic champion Susannah Scaroni in the women’s 5000m T54, her first of six events at the Games. Ahead of the Closing Ceremony on 8 September, Debrunner topped the podium in the women’s marathon T54 for her fifth gold medal in the French capital.
Taking five gold medals, across six races, was a massive feat for Debrunner.
“We have all come an intense two weeks with a lot of races, a lot of emotions and then doing at the end a marathon, this is really something special,” she said. “Normally when we do a marathon we only prepare for that, not do five races before.”
And the women's are in!
— Paralympic Games (@Paralympics) September 8, 2024
Ruling champion Catherine Debrunner of Switzerland retains her title in the women's marathon T54 💨🏆🇨🇭#Paralympics #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/F1TE82phpv
Home hero
Home favourite Timothee Adolphe won two silver medals at the Stade de France. On 5 September, he competed in the men’s 100m T11 in front of an enormous home crowd that included French President Emmanuel Macron.
With guide Charles Renard, Adolphe crossed the finish line in 11.05 seconds, 0.3 second behind Greece’s Athanasios Ghavelas and his guide Ioannis Nyfantopoulos. China’s Di Dongdong took bronze.
“Obviously, there is some frustration because we wanted to ring the (Notre-Dame) bell (at the stadium to celebrate victory),” Adolphe said. “Just three small hundreds of a second were missing to be the first French (Para athlete) to let it ring.”
“We had a huge crowd, we wanted to be up to the challenge,” he said. “Now it remains a beautiful medal.
“Last year at the World Championships (in Paris) I got two bronzes, this year it’s (two) silver, so I’ll let you guess the colour (of the medals) for next year (for the World Championships). And we will be working for it."
