Tokyo Paralympics: When team India started their Paralympic Games campaign in Tokyo this year, very little was being talked about. India never had a strong presence at the Paralympics and only had 12 medals overall even though it has been participating in the Games since 1968.
India's medal tally of 12 rose to a whopping 31 this year as Indian athletes grabbed 19 medals in total at the Tokyo Paralympics 2020.
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This is India's best performance at the Paralympics. The previous best came in the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games when India won four medals, including two gold medals. Even in the 1984 New York Games, India had won four medals, but there was no gold medal.
After winning four medals in New York, Indian athletes returned home without any medal from Seoul, Barcelona, Atlanta, and Sydney Paralympics. Javelin thrower Devendra Jhajaria, who also won a silver medal this year, has previously won two gld medals for India — one at the 2004 Athens Games and the other at the 2016 Rio Games.
In 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, India won five gold, eight silver, and six bronze medals. India's para-athlete, Deepa Malik, who won a silver medal in 2016, congratulated team India on winning 19 medals and expressed confidence that they will come out stronger in 2024.
India's Avani Lekhara won a gold and bronze medal in shooting that made her the only Indian woman to have won two Paralympic medals.
India's Medal Winners At Tokyo Paralympics
Gold Medalists: Avani Lekhara, Sumit Antil, Manish Narwal, Pramod Bhagat, Krishna Nagar
Silver Medalists: Bhavina Patel, Nishad Kumar, Yogesh Kathuniya, Devendra Jhajharia, Mariyappan Thangavelu, Praveen Kumar
Bronze Medalists: Sundar Singh Gurjar, Singhraj Adhana, Sharad Kumar, Avani Lekhara, Harvinder Singh, Manoj Sarkar