The Paralympians With the Most Golds

As the Paralympics kick off this week, we’re looking at a roundup of the para athletes decorated with the most gold medals since 1960. The following chart is based on the International Paralympic Committe’s Historical Results Archive and covers only the Summer Games.

Topping the list is U.S. swimming star Trischa Zorn, who has won a record-breaking 32 gold medals throughout her Paralympian tenure between 1980 and 2004. Zorn was born with a genetic eye condition called aniridia which means she is blind. She is one of two Americans in the top eight, with the second another para swimmer, Jessica Long, who has so far won 16 golds and will be competing again in the Paris 2024 Paralympics.

France’s Béatrice Hess, who has cerebral palsy, comes in second place, having won 20 gold medals between 1984 and 2004. She is followed in third place by Team GB’s Sarah Storey, who started out as a swimmer but after a serious ear infection took up cycling too. Storey, who was born without a functioning left hand, is the most decorated British Paralympian to date, with 17 gold medals, eight silvers and three bronzes.

Jonas Jacobsson from Sweden matches Storey with a tally of 17 golds, which makes him the male Paralympian with the most golds in history. With a disability in his legs, Jacobsson uses a wheelchair. He is a former para sport shooter (i.e. rifle shooter) who participated in ten consecutive Summer Paralympics between 1980 and 2016, retiring after the Rio Games aged 51.

The final three names in this roundup are Italy’s Roberto Marson, Belarus’ Ihar Boki and GB’s Mike Kenny, with 16 golds each. All three are swimming champions, although Marson had also competed in the fields of athletics and fencing. Marson and Kenny share a history in having both had accidents, with Marson having lost the use of his legs aged 16 when a pine tree he was chopping down fell on him and Kenny having been paralyzed age 26 after falling from a ladder. Boki, who is visually impaired, will be competing at the Paris 2024 Games.

To compete in the Paralympic Games, an athlete must be eligible under one of the ten categories of impairment. This includes eight groups of physical impairments as well as one on vision impairment and one on intellectual impairment. Each sport is given a shorthand name, usually starting with the same letter as the sport i.e. S for Swimming, with a subsequent code to show the impairment group.

According to the IOC, as of the London 2012 Paralympic Games, the guides (in para athletics and para triathlon) and pilots (in para cycling and para triathlon) are also awarded medals.