See The Highlights As The Games Wrap, U.S. Places Fourth In Medal Count

[ad_1]

Topline

The Tokyo Paralympic Video games got here to an finish Sunday after almost two weeks of competitors among the many world’s high athletes with disabilities, which performed out amid Japan’s worsening Covid-19 scenario with roughly 300 folks linked to the Video games testing optimistic and Japan’s prime minister declining to run for reelection because of the surge.

Zhou Zhaoqian of Staff China crosses the end line to win the gold medal within the Girls’s 1500m – T54 … [+] on the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Video games on August 31.

Getty Photographs

Key Info

China finally earned probably the most Paralympic medals, taking residence 207 medals together with 96 golds, whereas the U.S. got here in fourth within the complete medal rely with 104 medals and 37 golds, behind Nice Britain (124 medals) and Russian Paralympic Committee (118 medals).

The U.S.’s gold medals included wins in males’s wheelchair basketball and ladies’s sitting volleyball Sunday simply earlier than the Video games closed, the place the groups defended their titles within the sports activities with victories towards Japan and China, respectively.

U.S. athletes additionally earned world records in a number of swimming and monitor and subject occasions and took residence gold medals within the triathlon, equestrian, archery, biking and desk tennis.

Afghanistan’s two-person Paralympic team—together with the nation’s first-ever feminine Paralympic athlete—was finally able to compete on the Video games as the results of a “main international operation,” after organizers initially stated they might not have the ability to go away their nation because the Taliban took management.

Because the Video games ended Sunday, organizers stated a complete of 301 people linked to the Paralympics had examined optimistic for Covid-19, together with 13 athletes—and a minimum of one participant was hospitalized.

Massive Quantity

4,405. That’s the variety of athletes that competed within the Paralympics, in accordance with the Associated Press, a file variety of contributors within the Video games who competed in additional than 500 occasions. That included a file variety of feminine athletes—1,782—and the U.S. Paralympic staff had more women than males for the primary time.

Shocking Truth

Tokyo is the first city to host the Paralympics twice after the Video games first debuted in 1960, forward of Tokyo’s final Summer time Video games in 1964. The subsequent metropolis to host them twice will likely be Los Angeles in 2028.

Tangent

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Friday he won’t run for reelection later this month, on account of criticism over how his authorities has dealt with the nation’s worsening Covid-19 scenario. Covid-19 instances in Japan and Tokyo are now declining after Japan’s instances skyrocketed in mid-August, however the nation remains to be seeing a record number of Covid-19 sufferers receiving intensive care in hospitals and the Japanese authorities reportedly plans to increase its state of emergency in Tokyo by the tip of the month.

Chief Critic

The Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics have drawn widespread criticism and protests for going down regardless of the pandemic. “Now that Prime Minister Suga is compelled out, taking the blame for his failure to fight the coronavirus, it could be inconceivable to assert that the Olympics and Paralympics have been profitable, a unifying moments [sic] for Japan,” Sophia College political scientist Koichi Nakano advised the AP.

Key Background

The Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Video games befell this summer time after a year-long delay as a result of pandemic. The Video games performed out with stringent Covid-19 protocols in impact, together with closing the occasions to spectators, although the Worldwide Olympic Committee didn’t require athletes to be vaccinated. The Tokyo Video games are the most costly Olympic Video games on file, a September 2020 study from the College of Oxford discovered, with a $16.7 billion price ticket. The AP notes misplaced ticket gross sales from the pandemic probably contributed to almost $800 million in extra losses as properly.

Marcel Hug of Staff Switzerland celebrates after profitable gold within the Males’s 5000m – T54 Remaining on the … [+] Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Video games on August 28.

Getty Photographs

China’s Haiyan Gu (R) competes towards Italy’s Beatrice Maria Vio through the wheelchair fencing gold … [+] medal match of the ladies’s foil staff on August 29.

AFP by way of Getty Photographs

Bronze medalist Anastasia Pagonis of Staff United States on the rostrum of the Girls’s 200m Particular person … [+] Medley – SM11 Remaining on August 30.

Getty Photographs

Rowan Crothers of Staff Australia reacts following his Males’s 50m Freestyle – S10 last on August 25.

Getty Photographs

Cicero Valdiran Lins Nobre of Staff Brazil competes within the Males’s Javelin Throw – F57 Remaining on August … [+] 28.

Getty Photographs

Trevon Jenifer #16 of Staff United States and Renshi Chokai #2 of Staff Japan through the males’s … [+] Wheelchair Basketball gold medal recreation on September 05.

Getty Photographs

William Perry of Staff Nice Britain competes within the Males’s 200m Particular person Medley – SM5 Warmth on … [+] August 26.

Getty Photographs

Flag bearers enter the stadium through the closing ceremony on September 5.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

athryn Holloway, Kaleo Maclay, Bethany Zummo and Heather Erickson of Staff United States through the … [+] Girls’s Sitting Volleyball gold match on September 05.

Getty Photographs