Teresa Perales adds to her legend in Paris by equalling Michael Phelps’ 28 Paralympic medals

Swimmer Teresa Perales has extended her sporting legend this Saturday by winning the bronze medal in the 50-metre backstroke S2 ​​at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games thanks to extraordinary courage that led her to come back to touch the pool wall in third place. With this, Perales has accumulated 28 Paralympic medals (7 gold, 10 silver and 11 bronze) and expands the small group of Spanish athletes with the most medals at the Games – specifically seven, from Sydney 2000 to Paris 2024. Former athlete Puri Santamarta and swimmer Miguel Luque are also in that club.

In addition, the swimmer from Zaragoza has climbed to third place in the history of athletes with the most medals at the Paralympic Games, only surpassed by former American swimmer Trischa Zorn (46 medals, between Arnhem’80 and Athens 2004) and fellow American swimmer Jessica Long (29, although she can increase that number because she is competing in Paris).

Perales is catching up with British cyclist Sarah Storey, who is also present at Paris 2024 and has 28 Paralympic medals. Behind her are former Swedish shooter Jonas Jacobsson, Brazilian swimmer Daniel Días and former Swedish athlete, cyclist and skier Heinz Frei.

A few months after the Tokyo Games she underwent surgery on her left shoulder – which had been dislocated a few months before the Japanese Games – and she returned to competition in March last year with a new classification due to her more severe disability, as she has since swum with only her right arm. This meant she moved from class S5 to class S2.

DREAM COME TRUE

Perales landed on Parisian soil with the idea of ​​equaling the 28 medals of former swimmer Michael Phelps , the most decorated Olympic athlete in history, and signed up for three events.

Last Thursday she finished fifth in the 100m backstroke S2, after lowering her personal best by several seconds . And this Saturday she competed in the 50m backstroke S2, an event she had set for herself to receive her 28th Paralympic medal.

The swimmer from Zaragoza faced the final in the La Défense Arena pool with the sixth best qualifying time of the finalists and, in principle, somewhat far from the podium positions.

However, Perales started the final among the first positions, momentarily moved away from the podium positions and finally finished third after a few final meters very close to the Italian Angela Procida, who ultimately finished fourth, all under the gaze of Queen Letizia in the stands.

The Minister of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, Pilar Alegría; the President of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, and the President of the Spanish Paralympic Committee (CPE), Miguel Carballeda, also witnessed Teresa Perales’ historic race.

In the end, the gold medal went to Singaporean Pin Xiu Yip (1’05”99), the silver went to Mexican Haidee Viviana Aceves (1’08”96) and the bronze to Perales (1’10”95). Procida finished fourth, two hundredths of a second behind the Spaniard.

“UNTIL THE END”

A radiant Teresa Perales explained in the mixed zone of La Défense Arena that she felt “a little scared” when she saw the marks of her rivals in the qualifying heats, but that she won the medal “thanks above all to the determination I showed at the end.” “I told myself: until the end, right until the end. I swam without taking a breath so I could reach and touch it,” she added.

In this sense, he stressed that “I have lowered my Spanish record by two seconds and a bit this morning ” and acknowledged that “my heart skipped a beat when I saw the light on the step light come on”, but “I have been cautious until I confirmed the result and could cry at ease”.