Paralympics: Team Belgium bring home 14 medals from Paris
Belgium's athletes are returning from the Paralympic Games in Paris with 14 medals. The team won seven gold, four silver and three bronze medals.
Wheelchair racer Léa Bayekula and table tennis player Laurens Devos will carry the Belgian flag at the closing ceremony on Sunday evening. Bayekula won two gold medals at her first Paralympics in the T54 category, in the 100m and 400m. Devos was the best in Class 9 table tennis for the third time in a row, after successes Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021.
Belgium brought home 15 medals from the last Games in Tokyo. For a while, it looked like they would match that tally this year, but swimmer Tatyana Lebrun was stripped of a bronze medal on Saturday after the decision to disqualify Dutch swimmer Lisa Kruger was overturned.
'Unprecedented'
In addition to Bayekula and Devos, wheelchair racer Maxime Carabin and equestrian Michèle George each took two gold medals. Cyclist Ewoud Vromant and Maxime Hordies won two and one silver medals respectively, while wheelchair racer Peter Genyn won the team's fourth silver. Genyn also won a bronze medal, as did cyclists Tim Celen and Jonas Van de Steene.
"We did a great job, both the athletes and all the people around them"
For Olek Kazimirowski, managing director of the Belgian Paralympic team, these were "fantastic Games". Fourteen medals, including seven gold, is "unprecedented" for a team of 29 athletes, he said on Sunday. "We did a great job, both the athletes and all the people around them."
Belgium's Laurens Devos wins gold in the class 9 table tennis competition at the Paralympic Games © BELGA PHOTO LAURIE DIEFFEMBACQ
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