BRITAIN ‘rewrote the history books’ as they survived the rescheduled Tokyo Paralympics.
The 226-strong ParalympicsGB squad finished second in the medal table behind dominant China, winning 41 golds, 38 silvers and 45 bronzes.
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The total of 124 medals was four more than what was achieved at the London 2012 Games and the Brits have ended the 12-day event with four more golds than the mighty United States.
The record they broke was winning medals across 18 different sports at one single Games, something no country has done before in the 61 years of the Paralympic movement.
Team GB’s successful Paralympians gave a big thumbs-up at the Games’ closing ceremony after a bumper medals haul.
The Paras were, of course, postponed by 12 months due to the Covid pandemic.
While there were two positive coronavirus cases among the travelling staff and a couple of ‘false positives’ behind-the-scenes, ‘no athlete missed their start line’ according to chef de mission Penny Briscoe.
Briscoe said: “It has been a rollercoaster cycle but a historic Games for the Paralympic movement and us as a Paralympics team.
“It had been tough, the most challenging and complex Games delivery plan ever.
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“We have rewritten the history books. It has been the most remarkable team event. More medalling sports than any other nation at any previous Games.”
Katherine Grainger, head of funding body UK Sport, added: “It has been a complete triumph. A triumph of perseverance, passion and performance. Something we are all very proud of.”
On the final day of the Games, there were bronzes for the men’s wheelchair basketball squad and Krysten Coombs in the inaugural badminton event.
Cyclist Sarah Storey underlined her position as Britain’s greatest Paralympian with three gold medals – one on the track, two on the road – which took her to 17 golds in total.
This surpassed the record of 16 set by ex-swimmer Mike Kenny at the 1988 Seoul Games and she is not done yet with Paris 2024 in her sights.
The mixed wheelchair rugby squad – the sport is affectionately known as Murder Ball – memorably won gold with a shock 54-49 win over the United States last Sunday.
What made it even more special was the fact that they had their £3million funding cut after the Rio Games because they were not considered worthy of a medal.
Horseman Lee Pearson won three golds and has 14 Paralympics titles since he first started at Sydney at the turn of the century.
Even though he is 47 years old, training and riding horses are his life and he could potentially go on for another decade – and maybe even eclipse the tally eventually set by Storey.
On TV, the numbers exceeded expectations. Almost one million people watched the Boccia final on Channel 4 as wheelchair user David Smith – who carried the flag in the closing ceremony – retained the mixed individual BC1 title.
One other mark was the 1,000th medal won by Britain across summer/winter Olympics/Paralympics since National Lottery began pumping money into sport in 1997.
That accolade went to George Peasgood, who added bronze in the C4 time trial on day seven to his triathlon silver medal.
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