The goal of many athletes is to win, though for many Paralympic athletes just making the Paralympics at all, or being able to compete in the sport, is a great achievement.

It is clear that athletes from certain sports have an advantage, for example there are many more swimming and athletics medals up for grabs than for a team sport like wheelchair basketball, goalball, or sitting volleyball. Also, the number of events in which medals are available overall have changed over time, so recent participants may have an advantage.

Trischa Zorn has the Most Gold Medals

Here is the list of the top-10 athletes (males and females) with the most gold medals in total from all summer Paralympic Games (including Tokyo 2021). US swimmer Trischa Zorn is the clear winner, with the highest-ranked male being swimmer Michael Edgson. Zorn has a total of 55 medals, with 9 silver and 5 bronze to go with her 41 gold medals. Swimmers and track & field athletes dominate this list as many medals are available in these sports, compared to team sport athletes.

Top male and female (gold medals)

Rank Total Gold Medals Athlete Country   Sport
1 41 Trischa Zorn United States F Swimming
2 20 Béatrice Hess France F Swimming
3 18 Michael Edgson Canada M Swimming
4 17 Sarah Storey Great Britain F Swimming, Cycling
  17 Jonas Jacobsson Sweden M Shooting
6 16 Jessica Long USA F Swimming
  16 Roberto Marson Italy M Athletics, Fencing
  16 Mike Kenny Great Britain M Swimming
9 15 Zipora Rubin-Rosenbaum Israel F Athletics, Swimming, Wheelchair basketball, Table tennis
  15 Mayumi Narita Japan F Swimming
11 14 Heinz Frei Switzerland M Athletics, Cycling
  14 Daniel Dias Brazil M Swimming
  14 Franz Nietlispach Switzerland M Athletics
  14 Chantal Petitclerc Canada F Athletics
  14 Erin Popovich United States F Swimming

Trischa Zorn has the Most Total Medals

Here is the list of the top-10 athletes (male and female) with the most medals in total (includes all gold, silver and bronze medals won), from all summer Paralympic Games (including Tokyo 2021). US swimmer Trischa Zorn again is the clear winner. Some of these athletes have also won medals in the Winter Paralympics, but those are not counted in this list.

Top male and female Paralympians (total medals)

Rank Total Medals Athlete Country   Sport
1 55 Trischa Zorn United States F Swimming
2 30 Jonas Jacobsson Sweden M Shooting
  30 Zipora Rubin-Rosenbaum Israel F Athletics, Swimming, Wheelchair basketball, Table tennis
4 29 Jessica Long USA F Swimming
5 28 Sarah Storey Great Britain F Swimming, Cycling
  27 Heinz Frei Switzerland M Athletics, Cycling
7 26 Roberto Marson Italy M Athletics, Fencing
  25 Béatrice Hess France F Swimming
9 25 Claudia Hengst Germany F Swimming
10 24 Daniel Dias Brazil M Swimming