2024 Paralympics: Five World Records Tumble, Great Britain Still Holds on to Medal Table Lead

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 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7

Day 8 saw a slew of World Records tumble down as the Paralympic athletes in Paris continued to show up. During the session, 5 different World Records were broken, marking the most of any day of competition so far.

Mariia Pavlova opened the night by shattering her own World Record in the Women’s SB7 100 breaststroke. Palova touched the wall in a time of 1:26.09 to chop almost 8 tenths of a second off of her previous World Record mark of 1:26.86. With her swim, the Neutral Paralympic Athlete also took over 2 seconds off of the Paralympic Record of 1:28.13 that was set by American Ellie Marks back in 2016.

Another 100 breaststroke World Record fell later in the session, this time in the S12 classification as German Elena Krawzow posted a 3-second margin to win the event in record-breaking fashion. Krawzow touched in a time of 1:12.54, taking down her own World Record mark of 1:12.71 from 2019. She also reset her own Paralympic Record from prelims, which stood at 1:13.19.

In the Men’s S5 50m Freestyle, China’s Guo Jincheng lead his country to a podium sweep en route to a World Record performance. Jincheng dropped a time of 29.33, winning by over a second in the 50m event, chopping .4 off of his own World Record mark of 29.78 from last year.

China also won the Mixed 4x50m Medley Relay – 20 Points in World Record fashion. The team of Lu Dong, Zhang Li, Cang Lichao, and Jincheng combined for a time of 2:24.83, shattering the previous World Record of 2:27.45 by almost 3 seconds. China won the relay by a remarkable 6 second margin over the USA, who set an Americas Record in their runner-up finish.

During prelims, German Taliso Engel threw down a World Record of 1:01.84 in the Men’s SB13 100m breaststroke. In finals, Engel was just off of that mark, swimming a 1:01.90 to win the gold medal.

Additional Day 7 Paralympic Records

• Women’s 100m Breaststroke – SB11
  • Daria Lukianenko (NPA): 1:18.31
• Men’s 100m Freestyle – S6
  • Antonio Fantin (ITA): 1:03.12
• Men’s 100m Breaststroke – SB12
  • Nurdaulet Zhumagali (KAZ): 1:04.83
• Men’s 200m Individual Medley – SM9
  • Timothy Hodge (AUS): 2:13.31

European Records

• Mixed 4x50m Medley Relay – 20 Points
  • Ukraine (UKR): 2:31.53

Asian Records

• Women’s 100m Breaststroke – SB11
  • Ma Jia (CHN): 1:19.24
• Women’s 100m Breaststroke – SB12
  • Zheng Jietong  (CHN): 1:20.03
• Men’s 100m Breaststroke – SB12
  • Nurdaulet Zhumagali (KAZ): 1:04.83

African Records

• Women’s 50m Freestyle – S8
  • Husnah Kukundakwe (UGA): 33.12
• Women’s 100m Breaststroke – SB12
  • Alani Ferreira (RSA): 1:21.36

Oceanian Records

• Women’s 100m Breaststroke – SB12
  • Jenna Jones (AUS): 1:22.04

Americas Records

• Women’s 100m Breaststroke – SB11
  • Nadia Baez (ARG): 1:26.98
• Mixed 4x50m Medley Relay – 20 Points
  • United States of America (USA): 2:31.01

There hasn’t been much change in the medal standings after day 7. Despite a fantastic performance by the Chinese team, Great Britain is still holding on to the top spot on the medal table with 16 golds. The USA moved ahead of Ukraine after the team’s surge on Day 6, while Italy continues to hold steady in third place.

Medal Table Through Day 7