The 2024 Paris Paralympics have been a showstopper. With several viral moments on social media and athletes breaking records left, right and centre, it's been an unbelievable summer for female athletes. In fact, this year's Paralympics broke the record for most female athletes at the Paralympics.
In 2024, there are 1,983 women competing at the Paralympics, which is 45% of the total athletes. In comparison, at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics the ratio was 42%, with 1,846 women competing. Here’s hoping we can make it fully equal by the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
In an ever-terrifying news cycle, the remarkable talent, grit and determination on display at the Paralympics has never been more needed. We take a look at the most empowering moments of the 2024 Paris Paralympics so far.
Zakia Khudadadi makes history for Afghanistan
25-year-old Zakia Khudadadi has been beating the odds her entire life. She is the first Afghan woman to compete in Taekwondo internationally, and she gained international recognition after winning the African International Parataekwondo Championship in 2016 when she was only 18.
Khudadadi went on to represent Afghanistan at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, despite being initially banned from competing due to the Taliban takeover. She was ultimately granted permission by the International Paralympic Committee to compete in the event after being safely evacuated from Afghanistan. This made her the first Afghan female Paralympian to compete at the Games in 17 years, following track and field athlete Mareena Karim's participation at the 2004 Paralympics.
“I am here to battle for Afghan women and to show that even in the face of war, that we are strong and cannot be silenced.”
Khudadadi now competes as part of the Refugee Paralympic Team and made history this summer by becoming the first athlete from the team to win a medal, winning bronze in the K44 -47kg Para-taekwondo category. She told the BBC that this medal “sends a message for all the refugees in the world to follow hope, follow freedom and follow peace".
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Jodie Grinham competes while seven months pregnant
Welsh athlete Jodie Grinham brought home team gold and individual bronze for Team GB this summer. Grinham was born with a short left arm, no fingers, and half a thumb on her left hand. She is the first person with this disability to practise archery.
The first hurdle she had to overcome in her sporting career was a rule that the bow must not be attached to the archer in any way. When she first tried to join an archery club, they turned her away due to her impairment. To avoid breaking the rule and to allow her to compete, Grinham and her father pioneered moulding on the bow, which allows her to grip and balance it.
Jodie Grinham added a few extra elements to her training routine to account for a surprise kick or two.
Now, she is one of the best archers in the world and regularly wins against able-bodied athletes. But this isn’t how she made history this year. Grinham competed while seven months pregnant, making her the first-ever Paralympic athlete known to compete while pregnant. She told Sky News: “You acknowledge it and go 'I know you're there, mummy loves you' and you carry on with your process, so it wasn't a distraction."
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Sheetal Devi proves nothing is impossible
Paralympic archer Sheetal Devi also caught the world’s attention with her modifications for the sport. The athlete from India, who is only 17, is the only female participant in archery who has no arms.
She quickly went viral after her performance at the Games, in which she uses the dexterity of her foot and precision of her shoulder to complete the shot. She stunned audiences around the world with a perfect bullseye — and cool-as-a-cucumber attitude.
"I think I'm addicted to being the first of doing something, and that is what I want to do."
Appearing at her first Paralympics, Devi took home bronze with teammate Rakesh Kumar in the mixed event. She attracted attention from plenty of people, including Indian president Droupadi Murmu, who said: “Both of them are inspiring sportspersons from whom our youth can learn a lot”. Devi told the media before the event: “Whenever I see the medals I have won, I feel inspired to win more. I have only just started.”
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Oksana Masters uses sport to feel powerful
Highly decorated athlete Oksana Masters competes for Team USA and has won medals in a number of different sports, including cross-country skiing, biathlon, rowing and cycling. This summer, she took home an incredible 18th medal by winning gold in the women’s individual road cycling time trial H4-5.
Masters was born in Ukraine three years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which impacted the length of her limbs and bone development of her bones.
Masters told The Guardian that after being abandoned by her birth parents, she went through a traumatic childhood before being adopted by an American university professor at the age of seven.
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Now, Masters uses sport as a way of feeling empowered and accepting her body. She told CNN: “That was the journey for me to love myself and accept myself and see my body as powerful and strong. It was not an overnight journey.” She added: “Sports really taught me how it was okay to take my legs off in front of people and to still be powerful and feel powerful”.
Dame Sarah Storey hits out at inequality
British athlete Dame Sarah Storey also took home a sensational 18th medal at this summer’s Paralympics, winning the women’s C5 time trial in cycling. But Storey’s victory was bittersweet, as organisers decided to make the women’s course just half the length of the men’s.
In an empowering moment, Storey hit out at the organisers, saying: “This is the shortest Paralympic time trial we’ve ever had and I think it’s a real shame because you don’t get to showcase parasport in the way that you want to.” She added: “I’m very happy. I’m over the moon. But I know that there’s always ways to improve things.”
The summer of sport continues….
The Guardian reported that organisers decided to make the women’s course shorter simply due to a lack of time, which of course does not bode well for equality in sport. “There’s plenty of time in the day for us to do two laps like the men,” Storey told the media at the event. “And having fought so hard for parity in women’s cycling, to not have it in para-cycling after what we had in Glasgow [at the world championships] last year, is a real disappointment.”
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Fats Timbo, GLAMOUR Woman of the Year, joins Channel 4's Paralympic coverage
Fats Timbo is a content creator, author, and broadcaster who is known for her book Main Character Energy, winning ‘Creator of the Year’ at GLAMOUR's 2023 Women of the Year Awards, and, of course, her hilarious TikToks.
Fats has joined Channel 4's coverage at this year's Paralympics in Paris, saying, "I am more than ecstatic to be involved with the Paris Paralympics. It’s always been a dream of mine to be part of them some way or another.
“I don’t have a sporting bone in my body, but I can chat for England so I thought maybe I could be a presenter – and look where I am. It’s amazing.”
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