2024 SUMMER PARALYMPIC GAMES
- August 28 – September 8, 2024
- Swimming: August 29 – September 7, 2024
- La Défense Arena – Paris, France
- LCM (50 meters)
- Meet Central
- Full Schedule
- How To Watch
- Finals Recaps: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
Great Britain picked up four gold medals on day four of the 2024 Paralympic Games to maintain control of swimming’s medal table in Paris. Maisie Summers-Newton got the ball rolling for the Brits, winning her second gold medal of these Games in the women’s 100 breaststroke SB6. Summers-Newton led from start to finish, touching in 1:31.30 for new Paralympic and European records.
Brock Whiston added another gold for Great Britain in the 200 IM SM8, claiming gold in her Paralympic debut, five years after winning the 2019 World Championship title in a world record time. Whiston used a strong freestyle leg to power ahead of teammate Alice Tai and Viktoriia Ishchiulova to win in 2:40.37. Tai held on for the bronze medal, getting back on the podium for the second time in her Paralympic return to give Great Britain a 1-3 finish.
One day after her birthday, Grace Harvey struck gold in the women’s 100 breaststroke SB5. Harvey charged on the second 50 to get the win in 1:42.33. To close out the session, the all-teenage squad of William Ellard, Rhys Darbey, Poppy Maskill, and Olivia Newman-Baronius defended the nation’s gold medal from Tokyo in the mixed 4×100 freestyle relay S14. Ellard, the world record holder in the individual men’s event, put the squad in the lead after his opening leg and they never gave it up. Maskill blew the lead wide open on the third leg, and the quartet swam 3:43.05 to win.
Great Britain now leads the medal table by four golds, holding 11 compared to China’s seven. The Neutral Paralympic Committee is sitting third on the medal table with six golds.
In addition, there were three world records swum on Day 4. Brazil’s Gabriel dos Santos Araujo, who’s already picked up two gold medals in Paris, broke the men’s 150 IM SM2 record twice. Araujo swam 3:15.06 to qualify for the men’s 150 IM SM3 final. He lowered his world record by over a second in the final, swimming a 3:14.02.
Ukraine’s Mykhailo Serbin won the men’s 100 backstroke S11 with a world record of 1:05.84. Serbin has dominated this event in the last three years, winning the Tokyo Paralympic crown and the last two world championship titles. At the 2023 World Championships, Serbin won the title with a world record of 1:06.01 which he knocked off here in Paris, bringing the world record sub-1:06 for the first time.
More Day 4 Paralympic Records
- Racing up a classification, Italy’s Simone Barlaam broke the men’s 100 freestyle S9 twice on day four. In prelims, Barlaam swam 53.89, qualifying for the final. There, he dropped a 52.43, cutting his Paralympic record from prelims by 1.46 seconds as his teammate Stefano Raimondi earned gold.
- Germany’s Tanja Scholz claimed the first Paralympic gold medal of her career with Paralympic and European records in the women’s 150 IM SM3 while swimming in the SM4 classification. Scholz, 40, pulled away on the final 50 meters to touch in 2:51.31 and earned Germany’s first gold in the pool at these Paris Paralympics.
- Yang Hong kicked off the session with a Paralympic record in the men’s 100 breaststroke SB6. It was a stacked field as the world record holder, reigning Paralympic champion, and reigning world champion all faced off. In the end, it was Yang, the reigning world champion, who touched first. He clocked 1:18.34, setting new Paralympic and Asian records.
More Day 4 Continental Records
- Mexico’s Lidia Vieira da Cruz and Angel de Jesus Camacho Ramirez both set Americas records en route to Paralympic bronze in the 150 IM SM4. In the women’s race, Vieira da Cruz swam 2:57.16 while Camacho Ramirez clocked 2:37.29.
- Zhang Li reset the Asian record in the women’s 100 breaststroke SB5 twice. She first swam 1:43.68 in the heats, before swimming 1:43.17 to win the silver medal. In the tight women’s 100 freestyle S10, her teammate Zhang Meng swam a new Asian record of 1:01.47. Zhang finished seventh in the race, less than a second behind the winner Emeline Pierre.
- In the women’s 100 backstroke S11, Daria Lukianenko clocked 1:16.64, winning the bronze medal in a new European record.
- Arthur Xavier Ribeiro, Gabriel Bandeira, Beatriz Borges Carneiro, and Ana Karolina Soares de Oliveira closed out the session with a bronze medal in the mixed 4×100 freestyle relay S14. The quartet clocked a 3:47.49 for their medal, swimming an Americas record.
Swimming Medal Table
| Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Britain | 11 | 3 | 2 | 16 |
| China | 7 | 8 | 1 | 16 |
| Neutral Paralympic Athletes | 6 | 7 | 5 | 18 |
| Italy | 4 | 4 | 7 | 15 |
| United States | 3 | 5 | 1 | 9 |
| Brazil | 3 | 1 | 6 | 10 |
| Ukraine | 2 | 5 | 11 | 18 |
| France | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
| Japan | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Spain | 2 | 1 | 4 | 7 |
| Netherlands | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Germany | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Poland | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Singapore | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Australia | 1 | 4 | 5 | 10 |
| Israel | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Czech Republic | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Argentina | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Denmark | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Hungary | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Switzerland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Canada | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Mexico | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Colombia | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Hong Kong | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Azerbaijan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Cyprus | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Ireland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Chile | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Uzbekistan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
