South Africa produced a superb performance at the Paris Paralympics, bringing home six medals, two Paralympic records, two World records and numerous African records and personal best performances from the Games that took place from 28 August to 8 September in France.
Medal winners for South Africa:
- Mpumelelo Mhlongo – Men’s 100m T44 Gold
- Simoné Kruger – Women’s Discus F38 Gold and Paralympic Record
- Mpumelelo Mhlongo – Men’s 200m Bronze and World record
- Louzanne Coetzee – Women’s 1500m T12 Bronze
- Pieter du Preez – Men’s Hand Cycling H1 Individual Time Trial Bronze
- Lucas Sithole and Donald Ramphadi – Men’s Wheelchair Tennis Quad Doubles Bronze
Paralympic gold and bronze medalist, Mpumelelo Mhlongo also set a new World record in the Men’s Long Jump T44 division to cap-off his Paris 2024 campaign on a high note for South Africa.
“I think the thing is, when you try to work on a good performance, you just look at a team like the Springboks. They have got all the resources they need, the financial backing and therefore they end up being the best in the world. Now if we want to achieve the same, we need a working methodology to follow, which is to invest in athletes, so that when they put in the hard work they can be rewarded,” he told SABC Sport.
Mhlongo has been a charity ambassador for the Jumping Kids Prosthetic Fund (Jumping Kids) since 2015. Upon returning to South Africa, he collaborated with Investec to donate R100 000 to Jumping Kids at his homecoming event in a further commitment to help create change through sport.
Jumping Kids is a registered non-profit company that provides prosthetic equipment and holistic rehabilitation for children from previously disadvantaged communities who, like Mhlongo, are living with limb related physical challenges. The organisation has been linked to several Paralympic athletes since the charity’s launch in 2009.
One such athlete is Puseletso Mabote who, after being a Jumping Kids beneficiary for many years, was selected as a Global Team Toyota Athlete at the start of 2024.
Already being the current World record holder in the Men’s 200m T63 division, Mabote set a new 100m Men’s T63 Paralympic record in the heat round and just missed out on a podium in the highly competitive 100m final at the Paris Games. He also bettered his own African record in long jump.
Additional South African athletes who competed at the Paris Games that are considered as charity role-models to the beneficiaries at Jumping Kids are Simoné Kruger, who won gold in the Women’s Discus F38; Hermanus Blom, who set a new African record in the Men’s Shot Put F12; and Paul Daniels who secured a new African record in the Men’s 100m T62 class.
Also on the track, Jumping Kids role-model from Limpopo Province, Sheryl James lined up for South Africa in all three (100m, 200m, 400m) of her track finals and came fourth in the Women’s 400m T37 final at the 2024 Paralympic Games.
“It was an honour to have the opportunity to be in Paris and see South Africa give it their best at the Games. We are particularly grateful to have been there, amongst a capacity crowd at Stade de France, to witness Mpumelelo Mhlongo make history in the T44 division. He deserves this success,” concludes Jumping Kids Director, Michael Stevens.
Photos by Andries Kruger circa Kobe 2024 Para Athletics World Championships.
