2024 Paralympics ends with light show and two world records

The 2024 Paralympic Games ended in Paris with two world records and a spectacular light show during a closing ceremony dominated by French electronic music.

Jean-Michel Jarre got the party underway at the Stade de France packed with athletes, volunteers and spectators on a day when Morocco’s Fatima Ezzahra El Idrissi smashed the world record in the women’s marathon for runners with visual impairments and Nigeria’s Folashade Oluwafemiayo broke her own world record in women’s para powerlifting.

El Idrissi ran the 42-kilometre course in 2 hours, 48 minutes, 36 seconds, beating the previous record from Japan’s Misato Michishita in Hofu City in December 2020 by nearly six minutes.

“I wasn’t running for a time, only for a medal,” the 29-year-old Moroccan said.

Defending champion Oluwafemiayo twice bettered her own world record in women’s para powerlifting, bench-pressing 167 kilogrammes above her chest to win another gold in the final for women over 86kg.

The 39-year-old Oluwafemiayo beat her previous best mark from Tbilisi in Georgia in June by one kilo by lifting 166kg in round three. Oluwafemiayo then delighted spectators at La Chapelle Arena by adding another kilo to the record in a powerlift.

Rebecca Cheptegei remembered

After the marathons, spectators paid tribute to Ugandan Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who died Thursday after she was set on fire by her partner.

Cheptegei ran the marathon at the Paris Olympics last month, and an image of her celebrating was shown on a large screen near the finish line Sunday as the crowd was asked to observe a minute’s applause in her memory as a victim of femicide.

China dominates

China claimed almost twice as many gold medals – 94 to Britain’s 49 – as any other country during the Paralympics.

Altogether, China finished with 220 medals (94 gold, 76 silver, 50 bronze), compared to 124 for the next-best Britain and 105 for the US.

Host nation France finished eighth in the medal table with 19 gold medals among its total of 75.