Team China is once again sweeping all before them at the Paralympics after a string of record-breaking performances during the opening few days of the Games in Paris.

China’s Paralympians are sitting atop the medal table with 53 gold medals in the bag as of Wednesday afternoon, with the United Kingdom a distant second with 31. China has won 115 medals in total so far.

The stellar performance follows a highly successful Olympic Games for China this summer, which saw Chinese athletes win 91 medals including 40 golds. That was China’s best return since the 2008 Beijing Games and was enough to secure second place in the medal table.

Beyond the medal count, the Paralympics has already produced some memorable moments since the Games got underway on Aug. 28, with Chinese athletes defending titles and setting new world records in a string of events. Here is a rundown of some of the standout performances.

Athletics

China has looked particularly dominant in para athletics, which has been the country’s strongest discipline so far. Team China has already won 37 medals, including 14 golds, in track and field events.

In the men’s long jump T11 final, Di Dongdong from northeastern China’s Liaoning province broke a 10-year-old world record with a jump of 6.85 meters to take the gold medal.

Di, 31, developed severe glaucoma at the age of 6 and later suffered a detached retina after a ball hit him in the eye. The accident left him with a grade-1 disability, the most severe classification in China.

In an interview with domestic media, Di’s aunt said that sports had saved Di, helping him overcome losing his parents at a young age and then losing his sight.

Several female Chinese athletes have also pulled off the extraordinary feat of winning gold medals for the third consecutive Games in Paris, including Shi Yiting (women’s 200m - T36), Zou Lijuan (women’s javelin throw - F34), Wen Xiaoyan (women’s long jump - T37), and Zhou Xia (women’s 200m - T35).

Track cycling

Li Zhangyu from the eastern Zhejiang province secured China’s first gold medal of the 2024 Paralympic Games in the final of the men’s C1 3,000-meter individual pursuit, setting a new world record in the process. He also went on to claim a second gold in the men’s C1-3 1,000-meter individual time trial.

The 36-year-old, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a child, is a veteran Paralympian. He has now won gold medals at four consecutive Games, winning his first title at London 2012.

In the women’s C1-3 3,000-meter individual pursuit, rising star Wang Xiaomei pulled off the extraordinary feat of setting two world records in the same event. She broke the record in the qualifiers, then beat her own time with an even faster ride in the final to take gold.

Wang, 24, has congenital cerebral palsy with neurological dysfunction on the right side of her body, severely impacting the strength of her right arm and leg. When she first began cycling, falling off the bike was a common occurrence.

In 2018, Wang took China’s national championships by storm, winning four individual titles and breaking two national records. She went on to claim a silver medal in Tokyo, and has now finally won the first Paralympic gold medal of her career.

Swimming

In the pool, Team China has also made a strong start at the Games, with several swimmers setting new records. In the women’s S10 50-meter freestyle final, 25-year-old Chen Yi won gold with a world record time of 27.10 seconds.

In the men’s SM6 200-meter individual medley, 24-year-old Yang Hong — who lost both arms at the age of 10 due to an electric shock — broke his own world record with a time of 2:37.31 to earn another gold medal.

Other record-breaking performances included Ma Jia’s gold-winning swim in the women’s S11 50-meter freestyle; the mixed 4x50-meter freestyle team breaking their own world record to defend their Paralympic title; and Zhang Li setting two new Asian records in the preliminaries and the final of the women’s SB5 100-meter breaststroke, helping her claim the silver medal.

Calls for more publicity

China also made a new breakthrough by winning the country’s first ever gold medal in boccia. Lin Ximei, a 29-year-old from the southern Guangdong province, won the title in the women’s BC4 individual final.

Yet, despite all these impressive performances, China’s Paralympians have not received as much attention as the Olympic team. The topic “Paralympics, low attention” has received more than 9 million views on the microblogging platform Weibo, sparking calls for the Games to receive more coverage.

(Header image: Yang Hong competes during the men’s 100m breaststroke - SB6 heats on day four of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games at Paris La Defense Arena, in Nanterre, France, Sept. 1, 2024. Adam Pretty/Getty Images/VCG)