Wheelchair racer Madison de Rozario won silver in the T54 marathon, revealing afterwards a personal tragedy.

Australia came ninth in the overall tally with 63 medals – 18 gold, 17 silver and 28 bronze.

The top three countries were China, the United States and Great Britain.

After 10 days of inspiring competition, the Games came to an official end with a rain-drenched ceremony in Stade de France which was lit up in the blue, white and red colours of the French national flag.

More than 4000 athletes let their hair down as performers such as French electronic music composer Jean-Michel Jarre vibed the arena.

“The Paris 2024 Games are coming to an end, but their message is staying with us,” Paris president Tony Estanguet said.

Australia came ninth in the overall tally with 63 medals – 18 gold, 17 silver and 28 bronze.

The top three countries were China, the USA and Great Britain.

After 10 days of inspiring competition, the Games came to an official end with a rain-drenched ceremony in Stade de France which was lit up in the blue, white and red colours of the French national flag.

More than 4000 athletes let their hair down as performers such as French electronic music composer Jean-Michel Jarre vibed the arena.

“The Paris 2024 Games are coming to an end, but their message is staying with us,” Paris president Tony Estanguet said.

“Just like the athletes that have inspired us so much, just like the men and women who pushed all the limits to make these Games a success – let’s keep trying, keep failing and keep getting back up again.

“Let’s keep doing. Let’s keep believing and above all – let’s keep daring.”

Personal tragedy

After winning silver in the marathon, Madison de Rozario revealed she had considered returning to Australia and abandoning her Paralympic campaign.

The wheelchair racer was a flagbearer at the opening ceremony but learned in the hours after that her father had died.

“When you first get news like that the option is there to go home and it feels like the correct thing to do,” de Rozario said.

“I feel so lucky that as I was having that thought, the first thing my family said to me was, ‘don’t come home’. There was a very clear instruction to get this done.

“Turns out, I’d rather be in a Paralympic village with 160 of my best friends.

“I think, for a bunch of people who had no idea the week that I was having, they were the people I wanted to be around.”

The 30-year-old was unable to defend her marathon title when she was beaten on Sunday (Paris time) by Catherine Debrunner.

De Rozario finished 4 minutes, 23 seconds behind the Swiss but said post race that her build-up had been hit by news of her father Roy’s death.

De Rozario said she was told by her mother soon after leading the Australian team down the Champs Elysses.

Paris highlights

In medals won, this was Australia’s worst Paralympic performance since the 1980 Games in Arnhem.

In the final table, ninth place is the lowest Australia has come since the Seoul Games in 1988, when it ranked 12th.

However, there were some stunning highlights.

Lauren Parker buried the pain of missing triathlon gold in Tokyo and became the first Australian to win golds in multiple sports in 48 years.

Alexa Leary’s comeback from a near-fatal bike crash three years ago was capped by a dominant performance in the pool as her family fought back tears.

After being whacked by a nasty bout of glandular fever in May, James Turner responded with two impressive gold medal wins, in the T36 100 metres and 400 metres.

The emerging members of Australia’s track and field may have collected few medals but they made an impression with an eye on the future.

Rhiannon Clarke, Telaya Blacksmith and Annabelle Colman all look like strong medal chances in the coming years.

-with AAP