Paralympics Day 1 Wrap-Up: ParalympicsGB glitters with six medals on first day of competition

When looking at the Paris 2024 Paralympics medal table, China leads out with a total of 4 gold medals. Immediately afterwards though is Team Great Britain. A total of six medals, two of them gold, have been won by ParalympicsGB. Let's take a look at who the newest stars of the 2024 games are.

Competition is going swimmingly

Swimmer Tully Kearney has had a difficult journey to these games. Acording to the ParalympicsGB website, "The 27-year-old thought her Paralympic dreams were over after suffering a head injury last year that affected her memory and left her contemplating her future in the sport." Kearney was reclassified for the Games, but was still determined to achieve a gold medal after winning the silver in Tokyo's S5 200m freestyle. Fighting against Ukraine's Irina Poida, she "slowly hunted down her rival to finish just over a half a second ahead." Kearney described her joy at accomplishing this feat:

"To be able to get here means a lot to me. Even a few weeks ago we weren't sure if I was going to come out and compete or how many events I would do. I wanted redemption and I'm just absolutely ecstatic and a bit speechless."

- Tully Kearney

19-year-old Poppy Maskill won the first gold of the Games for ParalympicsGB with a world record in the S14 100m butterfly.

She was fastest in her qualifying heats earlier in the day, but performed with astounding speed in the finals. The new world record in the event is jointly held by fellow ParalympicsGB member Olivia Newman-Baronius and Valeriia Shabalina, a Russian athlete competing on the Neutral Paralympic Athletic team. She says that "it's unreal and it feels weird to be the team's first gold medalist," adding that "This gives me so much confidence."

In the men's events, the silver medal for the S14 100m butterfly went to William Ellard. He began competitively swimming just two years ago, but only missed the gold by fractions of a second. He lost to Denmark's Alexander Hillhouse and remarked that "I didn't think I'd be happy with a silver medal but I'm a really good friend with Alexander and I'm delighted for him."

"One of those things"

The first ParalympicsGB medal of the games was an unexpected one for the cyclist who won silver. Daphne Schrager competed in the women's C1-3 3000m individual event behind China's XIaomei Wang.

World record holder Kadeena Cox suffered a crash in her time trial for the C4-5 500m, meaning she was unable to restart her race. It was her victory in Rio 2016 that inspired Schrager to change sports from track sprinting to cycling.

Schrager was starstruck to receive her medal from Jackie Chan, who is a special ambassador for the International Paralympic Committee. She got emotional over the journey that she has made by "starting from scratch." She admits to one failure: "I promised my mum I wouldn't cry on the podium, then I did - one of those things."

Silver medals in cycling also went to Team Great Britain for the tandem pair of Steve Bate and Chris Latham. 47-year-old Bate nearly retired in 2022, but persevered, and commented that "The medal represents nine months of hard graft and a massive team effort." His silver is the fifth medal he has won.

Serving up bronze

The first bronze medal win of the Games for Team Great Britain was won for Para Table Tennis in the Women's Doubles - WD14.

Bly Twomey is 14 years old and Great Britain's youngest table tennis medalist, paired up with 30-year-old Fliss Pickard. Her youth was no barrier to the 3-0 quarter-final win over Norwegians Nora Korneliussen and Jenny Helene Slettum. They lost to Chinese competitors Wenjuan Hong and Yucheng Jin that evening, which prevented their participation in the gold medal round.

These bronze medalists both have cerebral palsy.

Congratulations to the victors of Day 1 and we look forward to what comes next.