The Oranje team returned from the 2024 Summer Paralympics in triumph after winning a colossal 56 medals at the Paris tournament. The Dutch team won medals across multiple disciplines, from shotput to road race cycling, equestrian events and quad wheelchair tennis. The Netherlands finished fourth in the medal table, which represents their second-highest ever finish, surpassed only by the second place achieved at Toronto in 1976. This year’s success continues the Netherlands drastic improvement from the historic low in 2004, when they finished 27th.
The team arrived back in the Netherlands to glowing adulation from King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima and ever-opportunistic politicians. All 41 medal winners were welcomed to Noordeinde Palace on 10 September, where they joined the royals in a customary photo-op. The palace said in a statement: ‘TeamNL brings back an incredible number of medals from the Paralympic Games in Paris. 27 gold, 17 silver, and 12 bronze! You have made the Netherlands cheer! It is an honour to receive the medal winners.’
The games were filled with incredible stories of sporting conquest for Dutch athletes. Kelly van Zon cemented herself as one of the great Dutch Paralympians by winning her fourth gold medal in a row in the Women’s Table Tennis Class 7. In an astonishing final, she mustered an incredible performance by coming back from two sets down to beat the current World and European Champion Kubra Korkut 3-2. After raising four fingers upon winning, Van Zon said: ‘I was so far behind. I don’t know what happened. All my balls went over the table. [But] I started to believe [and] I could feel the crowd behind me. I lost my world title against her, she is a great player. This time I still won in the end. I had to dig so deep.’
Amsterdammer Jetze Plat pulled off another remarkable Paralympic performance by successfully defending titles in three separate disciplines. After winning the Men’s PTWC Paratriathlon, the Men’s time trial H4 and Men’s road race H4 cycling events, he used his Sunday to take part in the Men’s Marathon T54, somehow managing to finish 9th with a Season’s Best time of 1:39:47.
Other brilliant achievements included Fleur Jong justifying her pre-tournament favourite tag by smashing both the long-jump and 100m in the T64 category. Tristan Bangma added to his gold medals he won in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, winning three golds in cycling events along with his guide Patrick Bos. The Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team overcame the USA in a thrilling final in which Bo Kramer dominated the game, scoring 23 points in a spectacular 63-49 victory.
There were many more amazing stories across the games, including the Netherlands’ domination across the cycling events. Moreover, it was an amazing spectacle of para-sport across all nations, with ticket sales totalling 2.4 million, the most since London 2012. The massive number of spectators was noted by Dutch athletes, with Jetze Plat commenting: ‘There was a huge audience, which I found particularly striking. You can see that another step has been taken [for the Paralympics].’
The road towards full equality in perception between para and able-bodied sport is still to be fully walked, but Paris 2024 was another huge step. The performances of all the athletes demonstrated that these are truly elite sportspeople. For now though, it is time for celebration, as shot put Gold Medalist Lara Baars hilariously stated: ‘[It’s time for] partying hard, cheering hard and little sleep.’
Written by James Turrell