Eleven days of unmissable Paris 2024 Paralympics action have concluded, and Great Britain's luminaries will head home with a total of 124 medals packed into their suitcases.
The Brits' tally is incredibly the exact same amount of medals that they achieved at the Tokyo 2020 Games, when they sent 12 more athletes, while they also surpassed their gold and silver medal count from the Paralympics three years ago.
GB's 124 podium finishes - including 49 golds - meant that they finished second in the overall table behind China for the third year running, and chef de mission Penny Briscoe was beaming with pride at the close of play on Sunday.
"ParalympicsGB have achieved so many milestones at these Games, I could not be more proud of every single team member for their fantastic performances across 11 thrilling days of competition here in Paris," Briscoe told the ParlaympicsGB website.
"To finish these Games with 49 gold medals and 124 overall – surpassing what we achieved in Tokyo - is testament to our incredible athletes, coaches and support staff and the years and months of dedicated hard work they all put in.
"Every Paralympic Games we see competition from around the world getting tougher and tougher, so to return home with so many fantastic performances from across the entire team really is so special."
Ahead of this evening's closing ceremony, where swimmer Poppy Maskill and taekwondo athlete Matt Bush will carry the GB flag, Sports Mole breaks down Great Britain's terrific medal tally from the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
GB Paralympic gold medals: 49
© Imago
With 49 gold medals from the Paris 2024 Games, GB return home with eight more Paralympic titles than they won at the Tokyo 2020 Games - as well as 11 more than they achieved at London 2012 - and they have only clinched more gold medals in one of the last nine editions.
That haul came at the Rio 2016 Games, where 265 athletes contributed to 64 gold medals, and 12 of GB's titles this time around remarkably came on one day of the competition - day four to be exact.
Swimming sensation Maskill won GB's first gold of the Paris Games in the Women's 100m butterfly S14 - setting a new world record in the process - before paracanoe star Laura Sugar clinched the nation's 49th and final Paralympic title on Sunday morning.
Two of GB's 49 golds were won in the cycling by the legendary Dame Sarah Storey, who now has 19 Paralympic crowns to her name, while Kadeena Cox, Hannah Cockroft, Alice Tai and Jody Cundy also came, saw and conquered in the French capital.
A special mention as well to javelin thrower Daniel Pembroke, who set two new world records - one right after the other - en route to defending his Tokyo title.
GB Paralympics silver medals: 44
Silver medalist at the 2024 @Paralympics 🥈🇬🇧🤍
— LTA (@the_LTA) September 7, 2024
Give it up for @alfiehewett6 pic.twitter.com/e5rFZ4DpZx
Also bettering their silver medal tally from the delayed Tokyo Paralympics, Great Britain finished in the runners-up spot on 44 occasions, six more than the 2020 Games and their highest total of silvers since winning 51 in 1992.
Gold medallists Maskill and Tai were among the runners-up in other races in the pool - as was 13-year-old Iona Winnifrith - while on the athletics track, wheelchair racer Samantha Kinghorn followed up her 100m gold with second-placed finishes in the 400m, 800m and 1500m.
Kinghorn was also a part of GB's silver-medal winning troupe in the mixed 4x100m relay alongside Jonnie Peacock, Zac Shaw and Ali Smith, while Alfie Hewett - the world number one in wheelchair tennis - finished as runner-up to Japan's Tokito Oda.
However, the Great Britain men's wheelchair basketball team won the silver medal that no athlete wants to win, suffering an agonising 73-69 loss to the United States despite taking the fourth quarter 26-20.
GB Paralympics bronze medals: 31
Bly TWOmey ✌️
— ParalympicsGB (@ParalympicsGB) September 5, 2024
It's a second medal of the Games for Bly Twomey as she picks up BRONZE in the women's singles WS7 🏓#ParalympicsGB #Paris2024 🥉 pic.twitter.com/o06UcwJGZS
The one area where Great Britain did not better their score from the Tokyo 2020 Games, the nation won 31 bronze medals in the French capital after taking 45 in Japan, although fewer third-placed finishes this time around were negated by a higher tally of golds and silvers.
In fact, 31 bronzes is the fewest that GB have won since taking that exact amount home from the Beijing 2008 Games, four years after clinching 29 at Athens, and there was arguably not a more popular third-placed finisher than table tennis phenom Bly Twomey.
The 14-year-old achieved both individual and doubles bronze - winning the latter with Felicity Pickard - while cyclist Lora Fachie and pilot Corrine Hall made it onto the final podium spots in the women's pursuit, time trial and road race.
Ben Knapton
