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As the curtain falls on Paris 2024, Welsh Paralympians are celebrating their best medal haul in 20 years.
Wales sent a contingent of 22 para-athletes to the Games with Great Britain and 14 returned with medals around their necks.
In total, 16 medals were won – seven gold, five silver and four bronze – in ten different sports.
It is the most medals since Athens 2004, when Welsh athletes won 22.
It is also Wales’ best performance at a Paralympic Games since Beijing 2008, when they won 10 gold medals out of a total of 14 medals.
The youngest winner in Paris was 17-year-old swimmer Rhys Darbey, who took gold and silver, and the oldest was 40-year-old table tennis player Rob Davies, who took silver.
GOLD
Matt Bush (Para-taekwondo – K44 +80 kg men)
Ben Pritchard (Para-rowing – PR1 men’s single sculls)
James Ball and Steffan Lloyd (Paracycling – Men’s 1000m Time Trial B)
Sabrina Fortune (Para-athletics – women’s F20 shot put)
Rhys Darbey (Para-swimming – mixed relay S14 4x100m freestyle)
Jodie Grinham (Para-Archery – Mixed Compound Open Team)
Laura Sugar (Para canoe – single kayak women KL3 200m)
MONEY
Rhys Darbey (Para-swimming – Men’s 200m Individual Medley SM14)
Rob Davies (Paralympic Table Tennis – Men’s Singles MS1)
Georgia Wilson (Para-Equestrian – Level II Individual Freestyle)
Aled Sion Davies (para athletics – men’s shot put F63)
Phil Pratt (Men’s Wheelchair Basketball Team)
BRONZE
Paul Karabardak (Paralympic Table Tennis – Men’s Doubles MD14)
Jodie Grinham (Para-Archery – Women’s Individual Compound)
Georgia Wilson (Para-Equestrian – Category II Individual Event)
Hollie Arnold (Para Athletics – Women’s Javelin Throw F46)
The Gold Rush
The first weekend of the Games will live long in the memory of Welsh sport, with five athletes reaching the top step of the podium in less than 24 hours.
Matt Bush started the gold rush and made history by becoming the first man to win para-taekwondo gold for Great Britain.
The third time proved to be the charm for the 35-year-old after injury sidelined him from competitions in Rio and Tokyo.
Ben Pritchard rowed to victory the following morning, the Mumbles skiff convincingly beating defending champion and long-time rival Roman Polianskyi of Ukraine.
Pritchard, who finished fifth in Tokyo, won by more than 10 seconds.
Meanwhile, on the final day of action at the velodrome, James Ball claimed the biggest victory of his cycling career.
He beat team-mate Neil Fachie in the time trial, Ball having finished second to the Scot in Tokyo three years ago.
Ball was helped to the title by fellow Welshman and rider Steffan Lloyd.
In athletics, Sabrina Fortune won gold in the shot put.
The 27-year-old won bronze in Rio as a teenager but injury prevented her from finishing fifth in Tokyo.
Since then, she has won two world titles and broken the world record twice en route to victory in Paris.
Swimmer Rhys Darbey ended the weekend in gold and did it in style.
He won gold in his first ever Paralympic race, the 4x100m freestyle relay, and he did so in remarkable fashion alongside three other teenagers.
Two more gold medals followed later in the Games, and few were more memorable than Jodie Grinham’s in para-archery. She won the mixed team title with Nathan Macqueen, but her champagne will have to stay on ice as she competed while seven months pregnant.
Laura Sugar had to be patient to win gold, but she did it in style on the final day.
The 33-year-old not only retained her single kayak title from Tokyo, but also set a new Paralympic record, just for good measure.
The pain of defeat
While some athletes felt euphoria, others were disappointed, such is the nature of sport.
Aled Sion Davies had gone to Paris as the hot favourite after setting a new shot put world record in May this year, but the 33-year-old had to settle for silver after what he described as a “massive underperformance” in the final.
Olivia Breen, another track athlete, also left the Games disappointed.
After winning Commonwealth 100m gold, Breen missed out on the final after finishing ninth overall.
Medal hopes then shifted to the long jump, but the 28-year-old was edged out for bronze by the narrowest of margins.
Breen had jumped the same distance as the third-place competitor, but her second-best jump was not as long.
Three-time Paralympic boccia champion David Smith was also hoping to add to his medal tally but was beaten in the individual bronze medal match and also failed to win a medal in the team event.
The 35-year-old later said he had “simply run out of petrol”.
The Games must, however, be seen as a resounding success for Welsh athletes and for ParalympicsGB as a whole.
They finished their 2024 Paralympic Games with a total of 124 medals, including 49 gold.
Only China, with 94 gold medals and 219 medals in total, won more titles during the 11-day event.
The final Welsh honour in Paris goes to Matt Bush, who was given the task of carrying the flag for Great Britain alongside para-swimmer Poppy Maskill.
The ceremony at the Stade de France begins at 7:30pm BST.
