Country dominates at Paralympics
By Qin Yuding (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-09-29 00:57

After 12 days of stressful and exhausting competition, China came out as the No 1 power at the 2004 Paralympic Games.

With a total of 141 medals, 63 of them gold, China emerged as the dominant force at the Games in Athens. Britain took second place in the medal standings, 28 golds behind. The United States, which had been quickly climbing the ladder in the past few days, finished in third place with 27 gold medals, followed by Canada, Australia and Ukraine.

The Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council sent a congratulatory letter to the Chinese delegation.

However, due to the tragic road accident that claimed the lives of seven high school students traveling to Athens to attend the Games, the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee cancelled the planned entertainment portions of the closing ceremony.

The Closing Ceremony only entailed the protocol segments, including the handover of the Paralympic Flag to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, which will be held in 2008.

China sent a 286-strong delegation to participate in the Paralympic Games, which started on September 17 and ended Tuesday.

The 200 Paralympic athletes and 86 coaches and officials made up the largest Chinese contingent in the history of the games that debuted in New York in 1984.

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