Paris 2024: Top medal highlights from Day 5

Podium twins

Twins Debora and Beatriz Borges Carneiro of Brazil both made it onto the podium of the women’s 100m breaststroke SB14 final, with Debora winning silver and Beatriz bronze. To make these medals even sweeter, it was their father’s birthday as well.

“I’m really, really happy,” said Beatriz. “This is a dream to be with my sister on the podium. This bronze medal looks like a gold.”

It was mission accomplished for Brazil’s men’s 200m freestyle S2 gold medallist, Gabriel Geraldo dos Santos Araujo, who came to Paris with the goal of winning three golds, one better than his performance in Tokyo.

“I have a feeling of completed mission. I came all this way to Paris to win the three golds and now I’ve done it. I’m really happy.”

It was another good day in the pool for Italy, with six medals for Italian swimmers, including gold in the men’s 50m freestyle S9 for Simone Barlaam.

“This is the one I was looking for and I’m very happy. I’m going to enjoy the medal ceremony and everything and then focus on the upcoming events.”

Nicholas Bennett won Canada’s first gold medal of the Paris 2024 Paralympics, finishing ahead of world record holder Naohide Yamaguchi in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB14.

Para triathlon medals awarded

Day five launched bright and early with Para triathlon.

France’s Alexis Hanquinquant defended his Paralympic title from Tokyo in the men’s PTS4, while the men’s PTS3 was won by Spain’s Daniel Molina, who is competing at the Paralympics for the first time since Athens 2004.

Two-time Paralympic champion Martin Schulz of Germany, settled for bronze in the men’s PTS5.

“It’s a hard one to take, but I’m still happy that I landed on the podium, especially with my family in the stands. I just wanted to be on the podium for them. The main goal was the gold, but at least I made the podium here.”

Another German bronze medallist, Anja Renner, took third in the women’s PTVI despite having only started triathlon one and a half years ago.

Great Britain’s Lauren Steadman took bronze in the women’s PTS5 in what is likely her last Paralympics.

“When I crossed that line, because this was my last Games, I sort of made sure to say hello to the fans, my family and my crowd. I embraced everything. Because sometimes we get hooked on medals, but so many people have come to watch this race. To me, that’s really special.”

First-ever wheelchair rugby gold for Japan

Japan won 48-41 over the USA in the wheelchair rugby gold medal match, securing the country’s first-ever Paralympic title in the sport.

The United States led after one quarter, but Japan took a slight lead at the end of the second, the boost they needed to stay ahead of the United States as the game progressed.

“Every day in training, I was thinking about my goal of winning a gold medal,” said Ike Yukinobu.

“I have thought abut this moment more than 100 times."

The USA has won a wheelchair rugby medal at every Games since the sport’s debut at Sydney 2000.

The battle for bronze was tight, with Australia edging out Great Britain 50-48.

“It was so disheartening yesterday when we battled out of the semifinal in the way we did,” said Chris Bond.

“But we told the team to just let that sink in, use that as fuel for motivation today, we still have one game ago play, and we always wanted to finish on top and get a win. Two third of our team coming in had never received a Paralympic medal before, and now they’re Paralympic medallists.”

Countdown to gold

Team USA’s Ezra Frech has used his social media for a 100 day countdown to winning Paralympic gold. While the Paralympic high jump title is what he’s aiming for, on Monday—day 99—he took first place in the men’s 100m T63.

“I’m quite shocked. I’m still taking it in right now. I was definitely not expecting to go out there and win,” said Frech.

“I knew I could, but I have high jump tomorrow and that’s where my focus has been. I was treating this as a warm-up for high jump, to get the blood flowing and have a good race, then come back tomorrow and win high jump.”

Ethiopia’s Yayesh Gate Tesfaw broke her own world world to win the women’s 1500m T11 gold, taking four seconds off her previous best time.

“I am so happy. First I carried the flag (at the Opening Ceremony) and now I have the gold and a world record. My country has a lot of heroic runners, so I am happy that I am now one of them and can do my country proud. This is for Ethiopia, for all my friends, for all my family."

Brazil’s Claudiney Batista dos Santos and Uzbekistan’s Bobirjon Omonov continued to build their own discus throw dynasties, with Batista dos Santos winning his third straight men’s F56 gold and Omonov defending his Parlaympic title in the men’s F41.

Meanwhile, it was redemption for Gloria Zarza Guadarrama of Mexico, who won gold in the women’s shot put F54.

“This medal has a big value for me because a year ago during the world championships, I was disqualified here in France. I wanted to prove myself.”

Boccia gold on home soil   

Singapore’s Yee Ting Jeralyn Tan may have won 6-1 over Aurelie Aubert in the women’s individual BC1 preliminary rounds, but it was Aubert who took the victory when the two boccia players met once again in the final.

With a 5-4 win, Aubert won France’s first-ever Paralympic Games medal in boccia.

“The support I had today (from the crowd) was unbelievable,” said Aubert. “I was in tears after the match to see them all clap and wave the French flags with such joy.”

For Hong Kong’s John Loung, winning the men’s individual BC1 gold meant so much because of the journey he took to get there.

Loung’s first Games was Athens 2004, but he decided to quit boccia in 2009: “I was not able to cope with my expectations and my performance was not up to the mark.”

He made his return to the sport in 2014, and is now a Paralympic champion.

“Looking back, it was a difficult time. This gold holds even more relevance because of the journey I have had.”

Para badminton medal bonanza

Thirteen gold medals were on the line on the final day of Para badminton.

The American duo of two 19-year-olds, Miles Krajewski and Jayci Simon, won mixed doubles SH6 gold, the first time a Paralympic badminton medal has been won by a country not from the continents of Europe or Asia.

“Bringing home the first medal ever will hopefully help grow the sport and get publicity out for people to try the sport,” said Krajewski.

A close men’s singles SL3 final saw Paralympic debutant Kumar Nitesh of India beat medal favourite Daniel Bethell of Great Britain. While Bethell won the second set, Nitesh rebounded to win the deciding third.

“I really can’t express it because I can’t feel anything, everything feels numb to me,” said Nitesh. "I am looking at the crowd and I can feel that I have done something very huge.”

Germany’s Thomas Wandschneider won his first Paralympic medal at age 60, bronze in the men’s singles WH1.

Leani Ratri Oktila of Indonesia finished the day with two medals, gold in the mixed doubles SL3-SU5 and silver in the women’s singles SL4.

Para archers combine for mixed team medals

Monday at Invalides featured the first Para archery mixed team medals.

Jodie Grinham, who became the first openly pregnant archer to win a Paralympic medal on Saturday, claimed her second medal of Paris 2024, winning gold with Team GB teammate Nathan MacQueen in the mixed team compound open.

“Winning bronze is amazing, but Paralympic champion, especially being able to do it with Nath (MacQueen), that in itself is just a completely different cut of fish.”

Bronze in the mixed team compound open went to India, with 17-year-old rising star Sheetal Devi winning her first Paralympic medal alongside Rakesh Kumar. This medal comes after a narrow loss for Devi in the 1/8 elimination round of the individual compound open on Saturday.

“Within such a short span of time, I have achieved so much, and I won the medal for my country,” said Devi. “I am very proud of it.”

Kim Jungnam dedicates bronze to his father

There was just one shooting Para sport medal up for grabs today, the P3 mixed 25m pistol SH1.

Yang Chao was victorious. The Chinese athlete has shooting Para sport medals from Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, but hasn’t medalled in this specific event before.

The bronze medal went to Kim Jungnam of the Republic of Korea, who is competing in his first Paralympics and was the world champion in this event in 2022.

“My father passed away a few days ago and this medal is for my father. I was told before (the P1 men’s 10m air pistol SH1 qualifying, in which he finished 24th) and I could not focus fully. I tried my best to focus today.”