update on the French medals at mid-term – Libération

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Eleven gold medals, twelve silver and fifteen bronze. This is the list of results displayed by the French delegation at the end of Tuesday, after a new harvest of podiums in swimming, and almost a week after the start of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. This places the country fifth in the ranking of medals.

These first eleven places already allow the French to match the result of the last Paralympiad, in 2021. The Blues left Tokyo with 11 gold medals, 15 silver, and 29 bronze, pointing to 14th in the nation rankings. In addition, France has already surpassed, all medals combined, the results of Rio in 2016 (9 gold, 5 silver, 14 bronze).

This inflation of charms can be partly explained because French athletes are more numerous than during the previous edition of the competition. There are 237 participating in Paris 2024, compared to 137 in Tokyo. While the total number of athletes has remained the same: 4,400. In addition, French supporters are there to support their athletes. So much so that para-athletes, unaccustomed to such enthusiasm, had to prepare to perform in the noise.

Moreover, the same trend – doing better and more – is observable at the Olympic Games: France broke its record for medals by winning 64 in total, compared to 43 previously in Beijing in 2008.

“We will really count at the end”

Before the Paris Games, the French Paralympic Committee had announced that it was aiming for eighth place in the nation rankings – the objective has so far been met – and obtaining twenty gold medals. “We are on target, we still have the potential for medals in the second part, declared the national technical director of the French disabled sports federation, Grégory Saint-Géniès, on RMC on Monday. We’ve only just passed the first week, there’s still a whole week to go, so we’re really staying focused. […] We will really count at the end.”

France won gold in swimming (Ugo Didier and Emeline Pierre), in cycling (Alexandre Léauté, Dorian Foulon, Marie Patouillet), in triathlon (Alexis Hanquinquant, Jules Ribstein), in shooting (Tanguy de La Forest), in badminton (Lucas Mazur and Charles Noakes), and also in boccia, a discipline close to pétanque in which Aurélie Aubert created a surprise on Monday.

All the results of the Paralympic Games can be found on our website. You can also follow the events day by day live on the page dedicated to the Paralympic Games.

Updated Tuesday September 3 at 11 p.m.with addition of the medals of the day.