The Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games have been declared complete. The closing ceremony took place on Sunday 8 September at the Stade de France.
The competition took place in the French capital from August 28. The Chinese team won the overall medal standings for the sixth consecutive time; athletes from the Middle Kingdom won 94 gold medals, 76 silver medals and 50 bronze medals.
88 athletes from Russia participated in the 2024 Paralympic Games in neutral status (NPA), winning 64 awards: 20 gold, 21 silver and 23 bronze medals.
President of the Russian Paralympic Committee Pavel Rozhkov He summed up the performance of neutral athletes at the Paris Games:
“Our athletes exceeded even the wildest expectations with their performance in Paris. They managed to enter the top ten strongest countries in the world, both in terms of the number of gold awards and the total number of medals, despite the lack of full international competitive practice in recent years and the fact that they competed with a truncated roster.
The team was more or less represented in swimming and athletics, only four athletes participated in table tennis, two in triathlon and two in taekwondo.
Our team confirmed the high level of development of Paralympic sports in Russia. The President of the Russian Federation gives it great support. Vladimir Putin.
This brilliant result was made possible by the joint work of athletes, coaches, doctors and sports organizers: the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation, the Sports Training Center of Russian National Teams, sports federations and constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
We admire the incredible strength of the Russian Paralympic athletes, their perseverance and will to win. We are proud of each of them and wish them further achievements in the sporting field.”
Meanwhile, the athlete Andrei Vdovin from the Nizhny Novgorod region, who won two gold medals and one bronze in Paris, told Match TV about the telephone bias at the Paralympics.
— Weren’t you offended that sponsors didn’t give you phone numbers?
– Well, yes, somewhere deep down I would like to receive them. This is such a small thing! I don’t know who left the Russians without phones: the company or the organizers. Fine, then. On the other hand, we will not be poor without these phones. Let’s remember the fact. Maybe it’s because your company left our country. They don’t give phones to Olympic athletes from Iran and North Korea either.
— So there is telephone discrimination?
– Well, yes, although it seems funny.
It is worth noting that the South Korean company Samsung presented the Paralympic athletes with personal engraving. As they say, let them choke on their pipe!
And now some unofficial words. About how to live longer and whether to participate in official international tournaments. After the Olympic Games in Paris, the World Rowing Championships in Samarkand and the Paralympic Games that ended, it became absolutely clear: the leaders of Russian elite sport were forced to accept the neutral individual status of our athletes.
We will continue to act in a cynically imperfect costume, without the flag, the anthem and the coat of arms of a great power, according to the conditions of the organizers.
The degree of approval and support from Russian neutrals will depend on the signal from above and the rhetoric on the Telegram channel. Dmitri GubernievIn December 1974, the United States Congress passed the so-called amendment Jackson-Vanik. And now we have an “admiration meter” Schneider-Andreeva (Sh-A).
For those who don’t know, these are wonderful Russian tennis players who sensationally took silver in the women’s doubles final at the Paris Olympics. But the “admiration meter” showed “very bad” and immediately DGP or P (the support or warning group on duty) responded: “we went without asking”, “they took medals not for the country, but for themselves”.
And when the device says: “definitely the best athletes in the world”, then the neutral Paralympians are called exclusively the Russian team, which took 8th place in the team medal standings. Although everyone knows that the NPA awards are not included in the mentioned rating for the 2024 Paralympic Games.
But if the country’s sports minister Mikhail Degtyarev declares out loud:
“Due to all kinds of restrictions for our team in conditions when Russian athletes have not participated in international competitions for a long time, I consider their performance in Paris to be worthy. This is the result of hard work, dedication, determination and focus on the main thing. We are proud of our Paralympic athletes,” – So be it. Topic closed.
We dream of a triumphant return to the Olympic Games, World and European Championships with the flag, the anthem and the coat of arms of the great Power, but for now we are content with labels, lettuce flags, “MOKOVSKAYA” music and attentively observing the “Sh-A Device”.
And, of course, we are eagerly awaiting official information about the postponement of the unique Friendship Games (an improved Russian analogue of the Summer Olympics), which are scheduled to open in six days, on September 15.
But they say something has gone wrong. And more than five thousand athletes from the major athletics powers are now sitting on their suitcases, forgetting about their Olympic exploits in July and August in Paris, and waiting for the go-ahead. But she is not there yet.
And here, of course, I would like to know: who and for what purpose last October misinformed the Head of State, seriously stating something like this: “Representatives from more than 100 countries will come to us, the sports facilities are already ready, only the formalities remain: a decree and the corresponding federal law that regulates all aspects of the event” (quote from “Championship”).
PS Also, the world star of rhythmic gymnastics. Dina Averina On June 1st of this year he innocently stated:
“We knew for a long time that the Friendship Games would be postponed. The main thing is that the BRICS Games are held now and then we will see what happens next. We know that our gymnasts and all athletes are preparing for the BRICS Games and then they will think about what is best.”
Los Angeles will host the next Summer Paralympic Games from 15 to 27 August 2028.
