The XIV Summer Paralympic Games were held in London from August 29 to September 9, 2012. Almost 4,200 athletes with disabilities from 166 countries participated in them, who competed for 503 sets of awards in 20 sports. The Russians played very successfully in London, significantly improving the results shown by our team at the previous games four years ago.
At the previous Paralympic Games in Beijing, Russian athletes in the unofficial medal standings were eighth with 63 medals, of which 12 were gold. The results of this Paralympics - 102 medals and the second overall team place in this indicator. The largest number of awards - 46 - was brought to the country by Paralympic athletes, who were able to climb 19 times to the highest step of the podium, 12 times were second and 15 times were third.
Runner Evgeny Shvetsov from Mordovia became a three-time champion - he won at distances of 100, 400 and 800 meters, while setting new world and Paralympic records. His colleague Elena Ivanova achieved a similar result - her gold medals were won at distances of 100, 200 meters and in the relay race 4 x 100 meters. Margarita Goncharova also took part in the gold relay race with her, who collected a collection of three highest and one silver medals of the London Paralympics. Moreover, to three medals in running disciplines, she added gold in the long jump.
The standard bearer of the Russian national team at the opening ceremony of the games was Alexey Ashapatov, who lost his leg 10 years ago, the champion of the previous Paralympic sports forum in Beijing. In London, he confirmed his superiority in shot put and discus throw, setting a new world record in the second discipline. Long jumper Gocha Khugaev from North Ossetia won one gold medal, but beat the current world achievement three times in a row.
A very significant contribution to the performance of the Russian national team was made by the team of swimmers - they won 42 awards - 13 gold, 17 silver and 12 bronze. In this form, Oksana Savchenko from Bashkiria stood out - she has five top places and one world record. Now Oksana is an eight-time Paralympic champion. In total, Russian swimmers in London were able to renew the highest world achievements six times.
Archers Timur Tuchinov, Oleg Shestakov and Mikhail Oyun took the entire podium in the individual competitions. And after a few days, everyone added to their collection one more gold award for winning a team competition in this sport.
The Russian Paralympians, in contrast to the Chinese who won the largest number of medals, participated in only half of the disciplines presented at the forum. Therefore, the national team of athletes with disabilities has very good growth prospects for the next Paralympics.
