Ealing's Dimitri Coutya Strikes Gold Again
Personal medal tally for wheelchair fencer in Paris reaches four
Dimitri collected his medal haul over five days of competition. Picture: Paralympics GB
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September 10, 2024
Dimitri Coutya’s five days in Paris have proven to be immensely productive as he has returned home with a personal medal tally of four.
After winning his first gold in an epic foil final at the Grand Palais on Wednesday (4 September), the wheelchair fencer from Ealing repeated the feat in the épée as well as joining forces with Oliver Lam-Watson and Piers Gilliver to claim team épée bronze, following the trio’s silver in the team foil.
That made it four podium appearances in five days, a deserved reward for all the effort that the 26-year-old has put in since the Tokyo games.
He said afterwards, “I always find the Games so incredible. Three or four years of your life go into five days of competition.
“It’s horribly gruelling but I’m really proud of what we have all put in. It’s really tough to come away with a Paralympic medal so this is a feat we should all be very proud of. I’m very proud to call these guys my teammates.”
He started slowly in the individual épée and admitted to struggling in the earlier rounds on Friday (6 September). After coming through a tough match with American Noah Hanssen, he defeated Italy’s Michele Massa in the quarter-finals and ensured he would leave with another medal when he beat Poland’s Michal Dabrowski 15-13 in a tense last four encounter.
Dimitri when he was at school in Ealing. Picture: St. Benedict's School
His victory over Thailand’s Visit Kingmanaw 15-10 in the gold medal match for the épée brought ParalympicsGB above the total number of golds achieved at Tokyo.
“I’m so thrilled, it hasn’t sunk in,” he said. “I haven’t had time to process the results from Wednesday or last night.
“It’s testament to the hard work so many people have invested in me. Teammates, support staff, friends and family. There are so many people I can’t even count.
“There are so many people in the crowd here supporting me, they push me to be better and they are a large part of the success I’ve had this week.
“The foil event is my personal favourite but I put a lot of work into epee and it means just as much to me to come away with Paralympic gold.
“I’m very proud to have been able to do that (take the team past Tokyo gold tally). Competing for ParalympicsGB is always such an honour and a privilege and the ethos they provide really helped push me this week.”
The following day his épée team bronze was achieved after beating the host nation but then being narrowly edged out by Iraq resulting in a third-place match with Poland with ‘Dimi’ facing his fifth straight day of competition.
Dimitri, who took up wheelchair fencing at St. Benedict’s School, is already one of the most successful ever British athletes in the sport of all time with ever prospect of more medals in Los Angeles should he choose to compete.
The school's headmaster, Joe Smith, commented, “What an incredible achievement! We are all so proud of our former student, Dimitri. Hopefully, his success will inspire many able-bodied and less able-bodied individuals to take up the fantastic sport of fencing which is such a popular and thriving sport at St Benedict’s.”
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