Team GB’s triumphant Paralympic athletes have returned home in style aboard British Airways’ gold-tipped Victorious 747.
Advertisement
Organisers said they had pulled off an against the odds success with the Rio Games.
In total, Turkish athletes won three gold, one silver and five bronze medals at the Paralympic Games which ended on Sunday.
Victoria residents John McRoberts and Jackie Gay won a joint silver medal in sailing while Liam Stanley, also of Victoria, took silver in the 1,500-metre race and wheelchair racer Tristan Smyth of Maple Ridge won a bronze medal.
The other South African to achieve two medals at the competition was Charl du Toit, who added to his T37 gold medal in the 100m sprint with victory in the 400m T37 event. It’s just sensational. I can’t believe how much support there is. The team also beat their medal haul from London four years ago, winning 27 more medals in total – although their cause was aided by the ban imposed on Russian Federation after a report found evidence of widespread doping in the country.
“I don’t know whether it was just a bit of talk to be honest”, she said after touching down at Heathrow.
“I have just sobbed since winning, I have worked so hard and it was such a tough race to be in, so to be on the podium it was awesome”.
The 25-year-old is the first Briton to win titles in two sports at the same Games since Seoul 1988.
Turkey has delivered its best Paralympic performance ever by bringing home nine medals from the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Rio was a great success for Great Britain’s Paralympians, coming in second in the medal count behind China.
Rio was the nation’s most successful “away” Games.
Chef de mission Penny Briscoe said the team delivered “an wonderful, awe-inspiring performance”, from “the most competitive team at the most competitive Games”.
She said: “We know those performances have excited and energised the public back home and so it is right and fitting that in both Manchester and London the athletes will receive a welcome from those cities and the public can see some of their heroes back on home soil”.
Advertisement
“Maybe seeing the stars of Rio on our streets will inspire spectators to follow their own sporting dreams and become the medallists of the future”.
