Italy wins 69 medals in Tokyo Paralympic Games

Tokyo: Italy finishes ninth on table with second best results ever in Paralympics. Italy concluded the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo on Sunday with 69 medals, one of the country’s best results ever.

In addition to enjoying its second-best result ever for the number of medals won, Italy fielded a record number of athletes: 115.

Italy finished in ninth place on the medal table, winning 14 gold, 29 silver and 26 bronze medals.

In first place came China, with 207 medals, followed by the UK and the US, with 124 and 104 respectively.

Italy’s medal record at the Summer Paralympic Games dates back to the very first edition, in Rome 1960, when the host nation came first by winning 80 medals.

Until the Tokyo edition, Italy’s second best performance ever was that of Seoul 1988, when the country won 58 medals.

In the Tokyo Paralympics, Italy performed strongly in athletics, cycling, fencing, archery, table tennis and dressage, however the discipline in which it excelled most was swimming, winning a total of 39 medals: 11 golds, 16 silvers and 12 bronzes.

The most awarded swimmer was 23-year-old Stefano Raimondi, who won a total of seven medals: one gold, four silvers and two bronzes.

A highlight for Italy came on Saturday when the country won its last three medals of the 2020 Paralympics courtesy of Ambra Sabatini, Martina Caironi and Monica Contrafatto who came first, second and third in the women’s 100-m athletics race in the T63 category, dedicated to athletes whose legs have been amputated above the knee.

Other highlights included a silver in the women’s individual foil thanks to 24-year-old fencer Bebe Vio, who was also helped Italy to win a silver in the team competition together with Andreea Ionela Mogos and Loredana Trigilia.

Italy won gold in the team handbike race thanks to Luca Mazzone, Paolo Cecchetto and Diego Colombari, who dedicated their medal to former Paralympic rider and athlete Alex Zanardi, who was involved in a serious accident during a handbike race near Siena last summer.