Spain's Paralympians smash medal record at Paris 2024

AS THE 2024 Paralympic Games comes to a close, Team Spain has smashed its own record medal-count and broken the 40 barrier for the first time.

After netting 31 medals in Rio 2016, the post-pandemic Paralympics set another national best for Spanish competitors – the haul of 36 from Tokyo 2020 represented the country's highest figure to date.

A last-minute silver for Alberto Suárez in the marathon brought the Paris 2024 total up to 40 – which included seven golds – and saw Spain shine most of all in swimming, athletics, triathlon and cycling.

Swimming remains the country's strongest discipline, with 15 medals, followed by cycling and athletics with eight each, and four for triathlon.

Spanish Olympic and Paralympic competitors typically have a greater battle on their hands than those of their neighbouring countries, given that government funding is very scarce – the majority have day-jobs – unlike the UK, second from top in the medal count after China, where candidates at the Games receive National Lottery grants. 

With the USA third from top, Spain was up against some powerful sporting nations, meaning its Paralympic sportspeople can be justly proud of coming 16^th in the medal total overall.

In fact, since the first Paralympic Games were held in 1968, Spain has won 727 medals, putting it 12^th in the world.

Medals are not, of course, the end of the story: Historically, diplomas have been awarded from fourth to sixth place and, since Los Angeles 1980, to eighth place – and Spain's diploma count is normally very high in both Paralympic and Olympic Games.

Paris 2024 Paralympic medals: The full count 

Spain has won two gold medals for swimming - Anastasiya Dmytriv (100-metres crawl), Íñigo Llopis (100-metres backstroke); one for athletics - Yassine Ouhdadi (5,000 metres running); two for triathlon – Susana Rodríguez with her guide Sara Pérez, and Daniel Molina, and two for road race cyclists Ricardo Ten and Sergio Garrote, giving a total of seven.

A total of 11 silver medals included three for athletics - Sara Martínez (long-jump), David Pineda (400-metres running) and Alberto Suárez (marathon); three for cycling – Ricardo Ten, Alfonso Cabello and Pablo Jaramillo in the team circuit speed event, Sergio Garrote for straight-road cycling, and Eduardo Santas for the road-cycling speed event; four for swimming, with two silvers for Núria Marquès (100-metres backstroke and 200-metres medley) and one each for Marta Fernández (100-metres freestyle) and Toni Ponce (100-metres crawl); and one for triathlon, for Marta Francés.

The 22 bronze medals included three for cycling (Ricardo Ten, Alfonso Cabello, and Damián Ramos); four for athletics – Alba García and Joan Munar for long-jump, and two for Álvaro del Amo for shot-putting and discus; seven for swimming in individual categories – Miguel Luque, Enrique Alhambra, María Delgado, Teresa Perales, Anastasiya Dmytriv, and two for Marta Fernández in the 50-metres crawl and 50-metres backstroke; two for swimming team events – Núria Marquès, Óscar Salguero, Íñigo Llopis, Sarai Gascón, Anastasiya Dmytriv and José Antonio Marí in the 4x100 mixed freestyle 34 points, and José Ramón Cantero, María Delgado, Emma Feliu and Enrique Alhambra in 4x100 mixed freestyle 49 points; and one for triathlon for Nil Riudavets.

Other sports where Spain earned bronze medals were target-shooting (Juan Antonio Saavedra), fencing (Judith Rodríguez), Judo (Marta Arce), singles table tennis (Ander Cepas), and doubles tennis (Daniel Caverzaschi and Martín de la Puente).

How did Spain fare in the Olympics?

Spain has spent the past 32 years trying to match, or even surpass, its record of 22 medals scooped up during the last Olympics held on home turf and, although it has come close a handful of times, the Barcelona 1992 total remains out of reach.

Better than Tokyo 2020's haul of 17, but still short of its overall goal, Paris 2024 gave Spain 18 medals – but only narrowly missed out on nearly doubling its total, with 17 diplomas for fourth place awarded.

This year's total included five golds – the men's football team, the women's water-polo team, triple long-jump (for Jordan Díaz), mixed walking (Álvaro Martín and María Pérez), and pairs sailing (Diego Botín and Florian Trittel).

María Pérez also took a silver for the 20-kilometres walking, as did rising tennis star Carlos Alcaraz, boxer Ayoub Ghadfa, and the women's three-a-side basketball team.

Nine bronze medals went to Spanish competitors, including the men's handball and women's synchronised swimming teams, Fran Garrigós for Judo, Sara Sorribes and Cristina Bucsa for women's doubles tennis, Emmanuel Reyes for boxing, and Álvaro Martín for 20-kilometres walking.

Watersports continued to be one of Spain's strongest activities this time around, with three bronzes – Pau Echéniz in K1 slalom kayaking, Diego Domínguez and Joan Moreno in C2 pairs canoeing, and the K4 kayaking quartet of Saúl Craviotto, Marcus Cooper, Rodrigo Germade and Carlos Arévalo.