India’s star athlete Preethi Pal made history by winning the country's first-ever medal in the 100m event at the Paralympics, securing a bronze in the Women's 100m T35 at the 2024 Paris Games on Friday, August 30. Preethi clocked a personal-best time of 14.21 seconds to claim India’s third medal at the 17th Summer Paralympic Games.
The 24-year-old from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, delivered the finest performance of her career to finish third, trailing behind China's Xia Zhou and Qianqian Gou. Xia dominated the race, taking gold with a season-best time of 13.58, while Gou secured silver with a personal-best of 13.74.
Preethi, who had earlier won a bronze at the 2024 World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, qualified for the Paris Games finals with that performance. Despite narrowly missing out on two medals at the Para Asian Games in Hangzhou last year, she was a strong contender for a podium finish in Paris.
