By The Numbers: Team Canada's impressive showing at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games
Canada picked up 29 medals over 11 days of competition.
Paris 2024 was a memorable Paralympic Games for Team Canada.
With the beautiful backdrop of the French capital, Canadians put on a show, bringing home 29 medals — beating their total from Tokyo 2020 (21 medals) and matching their tally from Rio 2016.
Below are some other interesting Team Canada facts and figures from the past two weeks.
Click here for all of True North’s Paris 2024 coverage, including recaps of every event involving Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
10 gold, 9 silver, 10 bronze medals for Team Canada
Canada won 29 medals in Paris — ten golds, nine silvers, and ten bronzes. In total, 31 athletes left with at least one medal, including 12 members of the women’s sitting volleyball team and several multi-medallists (more on them in a moment). Of those 31 athletes, 22 won their first-ever Paralympic medals in Paris, and of those 22, ten were competing at their first Paralympics.
Canada finished 12th on the medal table, and of the 170 teams competing were one of just 14 to win double-digit gold medals.
6 Canadian athletes won multiple medals
Six of Canada’s 31 medallists went home with more than one medal around their neck.
Para swimmer Nicholas Bennett and wheelchair racer Cody Fournie were the only Canadians to win multiple golds, with Bennett — who ended up being one of Canada’s flag bearers — also adding a silver medal.
Fellow wheelchair racers Brent Lakatos (one gold, one silver) and Austin Smeenk (one gold, one bronze) left Paris with multiple medals, while in the pool Aurélie Rivard won a medal of each colour and Tess Routliffe won a silver and a bronze.
7 medallists from Tokyo 2020 went home with more from Paris
Rivard and Lakatos — who now have 13 Paralympic medals each in their incredible careers — were two of seven Canadian medallists in Paris who also left Tokyo 2020 with some hardware.
Greg Stewart (men's shot put F46) and Danielle Dorris (women's 50 metre butterfly S7) repeated as Paralympic champions in their respective events. Nate Riech wasn’t able to defend his 1500m T38 title, but still walked away with silver at Stade de France.
At the velodrome, Kate O'Brien picked up a bronze in the para track cycling C4-5 time trial to reach the podium in that event again, while Keely Shaw took bronze in the women’s individual pursuit C4 for the second Games in a row.
Canadians won medals in 6 sports, including 2 new ones
For the first time ever, Canada won Paralympic medals in the sport of Para canoe and sitting volleyball at Paris 2024.
Brianna Hennessy, one of Canada’s closing ceremony flag bearers, won the Para canoe medal — a silver in the women’s single 200m VL2 event. The sitting volleyball medal came on the same day on Saturday, as they beat Brazil in straight sets for bronze for Canada’s first team medal at the Paralympics in 12 years.
The most successful sport was Para swimming, where Canadians combined for 13 medals — five gold, four silver, and four bronze. That number surpassed their total in that sport from Tokyo 2020 and Rio 2016 where they won eight. It was also a successful week in Para athletics, with Canadians picking up nine medals — their most since winning 19 at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics.
In Paris, Canada also won four medals in Para cycling and one in Para triathlon.
Medal winners came from 7 provinces
Athletes from seven of Canada’s ten provinces reached the podium in Paris.
British Columbia led the way with nine athletes bringing home a medal, followed by Alberta (eight), Ontario (six), Saskatchewan (three), Quebec (two), New Brunswick (two), and Manitoba (one).
The only provinces to miss the podium were Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland & Labrador, while there were no athletes on Team Canada from Nova Scotia or the three territories.
27 years between Team Canada’s oldest and youngest medallists
The youngest member of Team Canada at Paris 2024 was Para swimmer Reid Maxwell, who turned 17 during the Games on September 2. Maxwell won his first Paralympic medal in the pool, picking up a silver in the men’s 400m freestyle S8.
The oldest Canadian to pick up a medal at Paris 2024 was sitting volleyball player Felicia Voss-Shafiq, who competed in her third Paralympic Games after also playing at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Voss-Shafiq was 44 years old in Paris, 27 years older than Maxwell.
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