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Paris bids farewell to 2024 Paralympic Games as Team Korea finishes with 30 medal haul

Published: 09 Sep. 2024, 13:44 Updated: 09 Sep. 2024, 17:20

PAIK JI-HWAN
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Korea's Choi Yong-beom, center, enters the 2024 Paris Paralympics Games closing ceremony at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France on Sunday with a Korean flag. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Athletes from 170 countries bid farewell to the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games on Sunday at the closing ceremony at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France, after 12 days of competition that featured 549 medal events across 22 sports.

Canoeing athlete Choi Yong-beom, who won a gold medal in the men’s kayak single 200 meters, waved a Korean flag at the closing ceremony. Korea won 30 medals — six gold, 10 silver and 14 bronze — finishing 22nd in the medal standings.

China topped the standings with 220 medals, followed by Great Britain with 124 and the United States with 105.

Korea’s medal count at this year’s Paralympics surpassed their performance at the Tokyo Games in 2021, where they secured 24 medals. This year’s medal count matches their result at the 1996 Games and marks the first time Korea has finished with 30 or more medals since the 2016 Paralympics in Rio when the country claimed 35 medals.

The country’s success this year is largely thanks to an impressive run by table tennis players, who won 14 medals — two gold, three silver and nine bronze.

Korea's Kim Young-gun competes against Wanchai Chaiwut of Thailand in the men’s table tennis singles final at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games in Paris on Saturday. [NEWS1]

While table tennis yielded the most medals for Korea, shooting provided the most golds: Three, in addition to one silver and two bronze. The other sport where Korea claimed gold was boccia.

Boccia is similar to the winter Olympic sport of curling, where players throw six balls at a white target ball called the jack, and the team, pair or individual that finishes with the ball closest to the jack scores at each end.

Korean sport shooter Park Jin-ho competes in the R6 mixed 50-meter rifle prone SH1 final at the 2024 Paris Paralympics Games in Paris on Sept. 5. [YONHAP]

However, it was not all good news for Korea, as the country missed out on a medal in judo this year, despite having medaled in the last three Paralympics.

Kim Dong-hoon, in the men’s -73 kilogram category, was Korea’s last contender in this year’s Games, but he lost to Uchkun Kuranbaev of Uzbekistan in the bronze medal contest on Friday.

Korea also failed to medal in powerlifting again this year, a sport in which the country has not won a medal since 2012. Yang Jae-won competed on the last day of the tournament in the women’s up to 86-kilogram final but finished in fifth place.

Team Korea will also return home without a single medal in team sports, as the women’s goalball team, the country’s only team at this year’s tournament, failed to medal after losing in the quarterfinals to Turkey.

The Korean women's goalball team competes against Turkey in the quarterfinals at the 2024 Paris Paralympics Games in Paris on Sept. 4. [YONHAP]

The goalball team still secured a win at the Paralympics for the first time in 28 years with their victory over host country France in the group stage and went on to beat them again in a seventh-place game.

Goalball is played by two teams of three players on a court the same size as a volleyball court. Teams roll a ball containing bells at high speeds toward a court-wide goal, with defending players throwing themselves in front of the ball in an attempt to stop it. Each game is played over two 12-minute halves, and spectators must remain completely silent.

Fencer Yoon Ji-yu ended Korea’s 28-year medal drought in fencing by winning a silver in the women’s epee final.

This year, the International Paralympic Committee retained badminton and taekwondo, which were added for Tokyo 2020. In Paris, Korea won two silver and one bronze in badminton and earned one bronze in taekwondo.

The bronze from Joo Jeong-hun in the men’s K44 -80 kilogram category was his second straight Paralympic medal for Korea, having joined this year’s tournament after becoming the first Korean to medal in taekwondo in 2021.

Unlike the Tokyo Paralympics, where Joo was Korea's only competitor, this year saw the addition of Lee Dong-ho in the men’s K44 -63 kilogram category, but he failed to medal after losing to Milad Adnan of Israel in the round of 16.

Sunday’s closing ceremony marked the end of two international competitions — the Olympics and Paralympics — in the French capital this summer. The next Olympics and Paralympics will be in 2028, taking place in Los Angeles.

The closing ceremony also saw the election of six new members to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletes’ Council on Saturday, including Korean Paralympian Won Yoo-min.

Won immigrated to Canada and competed for the country in wheelchair basketball at the 2016 Paralympics, but he regained his Korean citizenship in 2017 and competed in para nordic skiing for Korea at the 2022 Winter Paralympics.

He will serve a four-year term during which he will represent Paralympians and organize initiatives for the athletes.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [[email protected]]