Australia finishes with lowest medal ranking in 36 years after ‘funding neglect’

Australia’s top Paralympics officials have high hopes for improved results in LA 2028 and Brisbane 2032 after the country ranked at a 36-year low on the medal table.

Paralympics Australia chef de mission Kate McLoughlin said while she was reluctant to focus on the medal table because it didn’t tell the story of the many achievements, she had long been warning that years of neglected funding would result in a worse ranking.

Lauren Parker and James Turner as flag-bearers at the closing ceremony.Credit: Getty Images

As the 2024 Paralympics came to a close on Sunday in Paris, Australia was unable to budge from its ninth position on the official medal tally. It finished with 18 gold medals, 17 silver and 28 bronze.

The result puts it behind countries including the Netherlands, Italy, Brazil, Ukraine and France.

China topped the competition in Paris with 94 gold medals, followed by the Great Britain with 49 and the USA with 36.

The last time Australia ranked this low at the Paralympic Games was in Seoul 1988, where it placed 10th.

After those Games, the country didn’t fall lower than fifth, peaking at number one in Sydney 2000, before falling to eighth in Tokyo 2021.

Last month during the Olympics, Australia finished fourth on the medal table – its best result since Athens 2004. McLoughlin said this was evidence of the inequality in funding.

She said Paralympics Australia had been lobbying successive federal governments for a financial boost for many years.

In the last few decades, winning a gold medal in Paralympic sport was “getting harder and harder”, McLoughlin said, as countries ramped up their investment.

“We had foreshadowed that this [lower ranking] would potentially happen and that we needed to do something about it,” she said. “They finally listened.”

Paralympics Australia chef de mission Kate McLoughlin (left) and president Alison Creagh.Credit: Paralympics Australia

The federal government this year announced it was doubling its investment in Paralympic sport, with an extra $54.9 million in funding allocated in the 2024-25 budget.

Before that, McLoughlin said funding was “absolutely” lacking. “There was a big gap and the government recognised that, and have come to the party,” she said.

“We can now strategise around how we can make sure we use that investment to the best advantage, and just make sure we improve the athlete pipeline and identify opportunities in more sports.”

A spokesperson for federal Sport Minister Anika Wells said: “The Albanese Government has made a record-breaking investment into our Paralympians doubling their additional funding over the next two years to almost $55m.

“The historic investment, the largest a government has ever made, will shift the balance of government sport funding from 85 per cent able bodied, 15 per cent people with a disability, to 75 and 25.“

McLoughlin said Australia would be examining the successes of other countries. She pointed to the Netherlands, which placed fourth with only 84 athletes in Paris – half of Australia’s representation.

And the British, she said, continued to thrive off the back of London 2012.

McLoughlin said athletes whose nations were less spread out than Australia benefited from proximity to venues and centralised training programs.

“There’s work we need to do on how to try to build that pipeline and have those great opportunities, in spite of geographical isolation,” she said.

“It’s a lot harder for para-athletes to be centralised without the support network of home and family and job opportunities than for an able-bodied athlete.”

Paralympics Australia president Alison Creagh previously said that after the 2024 Games, there would be a focus on fostering new talent and building teams for sports such as blind football and sitting volleyball. In Paris, Australia was not represented in five of the 22 sports.

McLoughlin stressed that the medal ladder was not a reflection on the efforts of Australia’s athletes.

“I’m really proud of every single athlete,” she said.

“Every athlete on this team did their very, very best. They planned, they trained, they put everything into it. And unfortunately, we can’t all win gold,” she said.

“[We want to] make sure that we give athletes every single chance of converting those silvers to golds.”

On Sunday night (Paris time), about 120 Australians were among the thousands of global athletes who marched in the closing ceremony at the Stade de France.

The stadium, where the athletics events were staged on a distinct purple track, was transformed into a giant dance floor as 24 DJs from the French electronic music scene kept the party going well into the night.

Lauren Parker and James Turner were flag-bearers for Australia.

Parker won gold medals in the triathlon and cycling road race, while sprinter Turner took gold in the 100-metre and 400-metre races.

McLoughlin said the closing celebrations would kick on into the night.

“Back at the village, everyone will be letting their hair down and I’ll be making sure they all get on the charter flight tomorrow night.”

McLoughlin said she was proud of how the Paralympics normalised disability.

“We’re here to win medals, we’re here to perform for Australia, but it’s so much more than that for these athletes, because for two weeks every four years, they get to be in a village that’s built for them, that’s surrounded by people that look like them.”

For the latest results, news and analysis from the Paris Paralympics sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.