Only four days into the Games, the greatest 4,300-plus para-athletes in the world are already almost halfway to surpassing the 2012 London Paralympic total of 251 records broken. Paralympians strive for equal treatment with non-disabled Olympic athletes, but a large funding gap exists between Olympic and Paralympic athletes. This is a good start for India, in Rio Paralympics.
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So far, Team Nigeria is placing nine on the medal table with five gold, two silver and one bronze medals, while China is topping with 40gold, 31silver and 24 bronze medals.
Much of the country’s success has been down to their dominance on the powerlifting benches. Nigerian athletes have won six of their seven medals so far in powerlifting, which sees athletes within a certain weight category bench press.
In front of an electrifying home crowd, Brazilian Petrucio Ferreira dos Santos won gold and set a new world record in the men’s T47 100m final, running a time of 10.57s.
New Zealand’s Sophie Pascoe celebrates her silver medal in the Womens 50m Freestyle S10 Swimming at the Rio Paralympics.
Onye Lauritta also handed team Nigeria it’s first medal in the athletes event, clinching gold in the women’s shot put f40 on day-four of the #Rio2016 #Paralympics.
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The aforementioned countries have either more silver or bronze than Nigeria at the moment.
