One year ago today, South Paris Arena 4 Witnessed An Extraordinary Day of Paralympic Para Table Tennis That Rewrote History Books And Delivered Some of the Most Emotionally Charged Moments of Paris 2024. Gold Medal Matches Unfiled, And, And, And, And, And, Breakthrough Achievement.
The Chinese Feng Panfeng achieved sporty immortality and claimed his tenth Paralympic gold medal with an impressive 3-0 win over the German Thomas Schmidberger in the 3 men’s Singles final class. More remarkable, it marked his fifth consecutive Paralympic title in the event – a performance of sustainable excellence that can rarely be seen in Elite Sport.
“I didn’t think I could get my 10th Paralympic gold medal,” Feng reflected afterwards. “Ten gold medals are also my goal. I will continue to improve and add more new things in my technical skills, so that my opponents cannot understand.”
The final represented the 21st career meeting between Feng and Schmidberger, a rivalry that spread 17 years since 2007. Although Schmidberger had been one of the few players who could challenge Feng – who delivered his last international defeat in 2018 – the Chinese master had remained in Singles competition for six years leading in Paris.
In perhaps the most dramatic competition of the day, the Netherlands’ Kelly van Zon produced one of the great Paralympic comebacks to secure its fourth consecutive class of class 7. With a backlog of 0-2 against Kubra Korkut from Turkey Die van Zon, in their previous two meetings on the world and European championship-groove, the Dutch champion deep to win 3-2 (7-11, 3-11, 11-8, 12-10, 11-7).
“I was so far behind. I didn’t know what happened. All my balls went over the table,” Van Zon admitted. “I tried to control everything, and it didn’t work. The plan I had in mind didn’t work. I tried to change it. I started to believe and the balls went a little more on the table. I could feel the crowd behind me.”
The most groundbreaking moment of the day was from the Japanese Natuki Wada, who claimed that the very first Paralympic gold medal of her country in women’s para-table tennis with victory over defender Elena Prokofeva (NPA) in the 11 ladies Singles Singles final.
Wadas 3-1 Triumph (8-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-4) was remarkable, not only for the termination of the 32-year-old Paralympic Paralympic Paralympic Para Tennis Gouden drought, but for the journey that brought her there. After only playing in 2019 as an exercise for weight loss, WADA defied the Paralympic champion in just five years in just five years of conventional sporting timelines.
“I am very happy that no one else did this before,” said Wada, whose aggressive style perfectly prevented the defensive approach to Prokofeva. “I am the type of person to win. I hate to lose. It’s my character.”
The day ended with Kim Gi Tae from Korea Republic who finally reached his Paralympic dream and beat Chen Po Yen from Chinese Taipei to claim class 11 men’s singles gold. Competitive in his third Paralympic Games, contained the victory of Kim breathtaking rallies, including a spectacular 24-branch exchange that embodied the quality shown.
“I am very happy. This medal is because I stayed strong,” Kim thought. “I think Chen is a better player than me, but he became a bit too nervous. It was a good match.”
Looking back a year later, 5 September 2024 is one of the determining days of Paralympic Para -Tafeltennis. From Feng’s historic tenth gold to the breakthrough triumph of Wada, from the stunning comeback from from Zon to Kim’s perseverance, it showed everything about paralympic sport everywhere.
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