Paralympic sport, the heroes behind the latest great sporting event in Paris

• A total of 40 medals —7 golds, 11 silvers, 22 bronzes— and 16th position in the medal table, give some idea of the achievements made by the Spanish Paralympic athletes at the Paris 2024 Games. Yet behind these figures, there are some even greater feats that merit further recognition and praise.

Spain’s Paralympic athletes managed to improve on their previous tally in Paris by winning 40 medals —four more than in Tokyo— and consolidating their upward trend. But the results have not only been quantitative, but also qualitative, as Paris has provided a new opportunity to raise awareness and make society reflect on the reality of people with disabilities.

In this latest edition, we were able to witness feats such as that of swimmer Teresa Perales, who with a new bronze medal to add to her collection, equalled the number of medals won by the legendary Michael Phelps. Perales suffered from neuropathy at the age of 19 and lost the mobility of her legs. Today, at the age of 48, she has a successful professional career and a brilliant sporting record.

 

Another moment for posterity came from Martín de la Puente and Daniel Caverzaschi, who won Spain’s first ever Paralympic medal in wheelchair tennis. No less exciting was wheelchair fencer Judith Rodríguez’s bronze medal, Spain’s first in this Paralympic sport since Sydney 2000. The gold medal won by triathlete Susana Rodríguez, whose severe visual impairment did not prevent her from repeating in Paris what she achieved four years earlier in Tokyo, will also remain forever in our memory.

 

The list of milestones achieved in Paris also includes Ricardo Ten. At the age of 8, this Valencian sportsman suffered an electric shock, meaning that both arms and his left leg had to be amputated. It was a huge blow, yet he discovered Paralympic sport and today he has 21 years of experience and an impressive hat-trick of medals in Paris (gold in time trial, silver in team sprint and bronze in team pursuit on the track) and 11 in total at the Paralympic Games (swimming and cycling).

 

Núria Marqués also made it a hat-trick. The young Catalan athlete was born with a leg disability that resulted in an amputation, so she embarked on adapted swimming. Paris has taken her to the pinnacle of Paralympic sport, with three medals and two diplomas.

But it is not just the epic medal count, as the Paralympic Games in Paris were a testament to the skills of the 150 athletes with disabilities who represented Spain over the course of the event.  Although there are many examples, for now we will single out Loida Zabala. At the age of eleven she was diagnosed with an inflammation of the spinal cord that affected her legs. She has also suffered abuse and was diagnosed with cancer in November 2023. Despite this adversity, in Paris she managed to compete for the fifth time at the Olympic Games as the only Spanish weightlifting representative.

The long road to Paris

All these athletes have taken new steps on the long road towards achieving visibility and recognition within society. On this path, they have been accompanied by companies that have shown an unflinching commitment to the normalisation of disability. For example, CaixaBank, sponsor of the Spanish Paralympic Committee since 2019, actively collaborates through the ADOP programme by awarding grants to help prepare Spanish Paralympic athletes. 

 

Precisely, with the aim of disseminating and applauding the human stories behind the sporting milestones, this year the bank has carried out the Road to Paris initiative, which has taken it across most of Spain alongside 16 Paralympic athletes the likes of Ricardo Ten, Marta Fernández, Sara Andrés, Dani Stix, Luismi Marquina, the Molina brothers, Álex Sánchez, Nil Riudavets, Oscar Salguero, Toni Ponce and Nuria Marqués.

 

The Road to Paris culminated in an event in which CaixaBank recognised all the Olympic medallists, in which the bank’s chairman, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, highlighted their role as role models for society on both a sporting and personal level: “You are leaders in your sports, without a shadow of a doubt, yet your attitude transcends the successes of competition, to become personal role models for many people, young and not so young, including myself.”

The sporting feats achieved come second to the spirit of self-improvement, optimism and humanity exuded by the Spanish Paralympic team.