As the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games come to a close, the 21 Scottish athletes who competed in the French capital have a lot to celebrate, adding 11 gold, eight silver and one bronze medal to ParalympicsGB’s overall medal tally of 124.

Stephen Clegg led the way in the pool with two gold in the S12 100m Backstroke, setting a new World record, and the S12 100m Butterfly. Further swimming success came from Faye Rogers, who also struck gold in the S10 100m Butterfly. Louis Lawlor set a new Scottish record to reach the final of the S14 100m Backstroke, finishing 7th, while there was 4th in the SM9 200m Individual Medley, 5th in the S9 400m Freestyle and 8th in the S9 100m Freestyle for Toni Shaw after a season interrupted by a back injury.

Sammi Kinghorn was one of only three GB athletes to win five medals in Paris, taking a magnificent gold in the T53 100m in a new Paralympic record and silver in the T53 400m, 800m and 1500m, as well as in the 4x100m Universal Relay. Ben Sandilands stormed to gold in the T20 1500m, setting a world record of 3.45.40 with a phenomenal run. Mel Woods made finals in the T54 400m, 800m and 1500m, finishing sixth in both the 400m and 800m.

In cycling there was also a world record for Jenny Holl as she piloted Sophie Unwin to gold in the Women’s B 3000m Individual Pursuit in the velodrome. The pair added bronze in the 1000m Time Trial before extending their medal haul to four with gold and silver in the road cycling events – gold in the Road Race and silver in the Time Trial. Fin Graham was also a medallist on the road and in the velodrome with gold in the C1-3 Road Race and silver in the C3 3000m Individual Pursuit. Neil Fachie added a fourth career Paralympic medal with silver, piloted by Matt Rotherham, in the Men’s B 1000m Time Trial.

Scots struck gold in archery, boccia and tennis. Nathan McQueen teamed up with Jodie Grinham for victory in the Archery Mixed Team Compound Open – one of the stories of the Games with Grinham competing while seven months pregnant. Stephen McGuire took an emotional BC4 Individual gold in the boccia events, his first Paralympic medal after a 20 year career, while tennis star Gordon Reid was on top form with Alfie Hewett to win Wheelchair Doubles gold, having won silver in both 2016 and 2020.

Having competed at the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Nordic skiing, Hope Gordon made her summer Paralympic debut in Para Canoe, celebrating with silver in the VL3 Single 200m.

Elsewhere, Robyn Love and Jodie Waite were part of a 5th place finish for GB in the Women’s Wheelchair Basketball event, beating Germany in the 5th/6th playoff after a narrow loss to USA in the quarter-finals. Just one year after giving birth to her son, Alison Peasgood delivered a terrific swim-bike-run to finish fourth in the women’s triathlon PTVI with guide Brooke Gillies. Martin Perry narrowly missed out on a medal in the Men’s Doubles MD14 table tennis event with Will Bayley, European champions France ending their run by just two points in the fifth and final set to deny them a place in the semi-finals. Perry also made the last 16 of the Singles.

ParalympicsGB finished second in the medal table behind China with 124 medals (49 gold, 44 silver and 31 bronze), matching their overall tally from Tokyo 2020 but winning eight more gold medals.