Moroccan Paralympic Athletes Steal the Show in the City of Lights

Moroccan Paralympic athletes were once again in the spotlight in Paris, the French capital, and attracted the attention of observers and specialists, after signing a distinguished and historic participation in the 17th Paralympic Games whose activities ended on Sunday evening.

Morocco brought its total to 15 medals, an unprecedented feat in the history of Moroccan participation in the Paralympic Games, including three gold, 6 silver and 6 bronze.

Behind this great achievement are champions who have excelled, shone and raised the national flag high thanks to their strong will and determination to gain a foothold on the map of Moroccan sport and with it international sport.

The participation in the Paris Paralympic Games is considered the best for the Kingdom, as it won seven medals at the Beijing Games in 2008 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016, and 11 medals at the Tokyo Games.

At the end of the Moroccan participation in the Paris Games, Fatima Zahraa Al-Idrissi refused to win a gold medal that she won in the marathon category (T12) after having had total control of the race (2 hours, 48 ​​minutes and 36 seconds), adding on the way to the podium another feat by breaking the world record for the race (2h 54m 13s).

Al-Idrissi shared the joy and the podium with her compatriot Mourid Noghi, who supported her throughout the race, and won the silver medal with a time of 2 hours, 58 minutes and 18 seconds.

The marathon gold medal adds to the two medals of the same metal won by Moncef Boga in the 400m race in the (T12) category and Ayman Al Haddawi in the 400m race in the (T47) category, the latter having in turn broken the world record by recording 46 seconds and 65/100.

This fine harvest, which allowed Morocco to occupy the 32nd place in the general ranking of 147 countries, was reinforced by six silver medals, coming from Fatima Zahraa Al-Idrissi in the 1500m in the category (T13), Abdel-Ilah Kani in the shot put, and Yousra Karim in the discus throw in the category (F41), Ezz Al-Din Al-Nuwairi in the shot put in the F-34 category, Ayoub Al-Sadni in the 400m in the T-47 category. , and Maryam Noghi in the marathon.

The number of medals won by Morocco in this tournament did not stop there, but six other bronze medals were added to this total, in addition to Al-Amin Chentouf, who settled for third place in the marathon, and Ayman Al-Hadawi. in the 100m in the T 47 category, Ayoub Adwish in the underweight of 63 kg in the K-44 category, Raja Aqarmash in the overweight of 65 kg in the same category in parataekwondo, Saida Amoudi in shooting. in the F-34 category, and Ezzedine Al-Nuwairi in the shot put in the F-33 category.

It is certain that these distinguished results, obtained by the Moroccan champions, were not a simple coincidence, but rather the result of the efforts and hard work that those responsible for sports for people with disabilities, whether physical or visual, have been doing since the last Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

This is Morocco’s tenth participation in the Paralympic Games, after the 1988 Games in Seoul, 1992 in Barcelona, ​​1996 in Atlanta, 2000 in Sydney, 2004 in Athens, 2008 in Beijing, 2012 in London, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and 2020 in Tokyo. Since its first participation in the Paralympic Games in 1988, Morocco has brought its medal total to 53 medals, including 19 gold, 17 silver and 17 bronze.

It is noteworthy that Morocco participated in the 17th session of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games with a delegation of 38 male and female athletes (24 men and 14 women) who competed in futsal for the blind, para taekwondo, cycling, tennis, powerlifting, athletics for people with disabilities and athletics for the blind and visually impaired. The national technical director of the Royal Moroccan University for Sports for People with Disabilities, Saeed Al-Marini, stressed that these results, obtained by the Moroccan champions of the Paris Paralympic Games, are the result of the hard work carried out by the national executives and the strategy adopted by the university in training athletes, which has borne fruit during This is an important station.

In a statement to the Arab Maghreb Press, Mr. Marini expressed his hope to continue working and maintain this level in order to achieve new records and win a greater number of medals at the next Paralympic Games.
He called for concerted efforts to achieve the best, especially with the increasing number of sports types participating in the Paralympic Games, most of which have been able to win medals like ParaTaekwondo.