Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

made its Paralympic Games début at the

1996 Summer Paralympics The 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, were held from August 16 to 25. It was the first Paralympics to get mass media sponsorship, and had a budget of USD $81 million. It was the first Paralympic Games where Internatio ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, with two competitors in

powerlifting Powerlifting is a strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift. As in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, it involves the athlete attempting a maximal weight single-lift effo ...

. The country has participated in every subsequent edition of the Summer Paralympics, but has never entered the Winter Paralympics. All Saudis have competed in athletics or powerlifting. Saudi Arabia has won a total of four medals, two through

Osamah Alshanqiti Osamah Alshanqiti is a Saudi Arabian athlete who competes in triple jump and high jump. He represented Saudi Arabia at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized ...

in 2008. Alshanqiti was the Kingdom's first Paralympic champion when he set a world record of 15.37m in the triple jump, F12 category. His other medal was a silver in the long jump, with a result of 7.06m, behind

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

Hilton Langenhoven Hilton Langenhoven (born 21 June 1983) is a South African athlete and three time Paralympic Champion, competing mainly in category F12 (visual impairment) long jump events. He was born in Somerset West, Western Cape. He competed in the 2004 Su ...

(7.31m). The other two medals belong to

Hani Alnakhli Hani Alnakhli (born 14 March 1986) is a Saudi Arabian athlete who competes in disability athletics in the F33 category. In Guangzhou for the 2010 Asian Para Games, Alnakhli won the gold medal in a combined F32–34 class for the discus and set a ...

, with a silver in 2012 and a bronze in 2016. Saudi Arabia has only ever sent male athletes to compete in the Paralympics, as women in the country are barred from taking part in international sports events. There has reportedly been some pressure on the country to allow women competitors for the 2012 Games, but when a delegation of Saudi Arabia's Disabled Sports Federation Powerlifting Team visited the facilities for the London Games in 2009, its athletes were all men."Saudi Arabian Powerlifter's visit Stoke Mandeville Stadium"
South East England Development Agency, June 17, 2009

Medal tables

Medals by Summer Games

Medals by Summer sport

Medalists

See also

References