How many medals has the USA won in the history of the Paralympic Games?

Two weeks after the curtain came down on the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, it is now the the turn of the Paralympic athletes to show off their talent as the Paralympic Games gets underway on 28 August.

A total of 225 American athletes will represent Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics with the main objective being to secure top billing in the medal table and look to edge out the likes of China and the United Kingdom, which finished above the United States four years ago in Tokyo.

Despite a delegation of more than 220 athletes, Team USA will face 282 Chinese representatives, 255 Brazilian athletes with host nation France providing 237 participants.

One has to go back to Atlanta 1996 as the last time Team USA topped the Paralympic medal table and pressure mounts after six games without reaching the summit of the medal table.

The USA nation used to be a dominant Paralympic power in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, but has steadily declined since the 1990s to a point where it finished sixth in the 2012 Summer Paralympics medal count. The team then improved to a fourth-place finish in 2016, and third in 2020, and unexpectedly finished first at the 2018 Winter Paralympics.

Since the inception of the Paralympics at the 1960 Rome Games, Team USA have an impressive record showing boasting 926 gold medals, 868 silvers and 827 bronze medals.

Good crowds anticipated for Paralympics

Solid ticket sales (principally from Parisians) will ensure packed venues for the Paralympic Games after many locals decided to leave the capital for the Olympics

Entire neighbourhoods turned eerily quiet as residents decamped as they feared the disturbance and traffic problems many thought the Games would bring although the Games turned out to be a global success.

The Paralympics will allow them to see Olympic sports in the same venues, including at the feet of the Eiffel Tower or in the gardens of the Versailles castle outside Paris.

Full screen

Organisers said that of the more than 1.75 million tickets already sold ahead of the start of events on Wednesday (28 August) with 92% of ticket purchases coming from French buyers.