From Zorn to Storey: Five great Paralympic athletes
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1 TRISCHA ZORN (USA)
SWIMMING
The greatest Paralympic medal winner in history, the visually impaired American won 55 medals including 41 golds from Arnhem 1980 to Athens 2004.
Born in 1964 with aniridia and classified legally blind, she received two artificial iris implants in 2003 that improved her vision to 20/150 though it did not change her event classification.
The pinnacle of her career came in Barcelona 1992 at the age of 28, where she was the most successful athlete of the Games with 10 gold and two silver medals.
In 2012, Zorn - who won golds in every discipline, freestyle, butterfly, breaststroke and backstroke - was inducted into the International Paralympic Committee Hall of Fame.
2 HEINZ FREI (SWI)
ATHLETICS, CYCLING, CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
At the age of 63, he defied Father Time to win a silver in cycling's H3 road race on Wednesday and take his all-time medal haul across summer and winter Paralympics to 35, including 15 golds.
The silver in the hand-bike event came nine years after his last medals - a gold in cycling's H2 time trial and bronze in the H1-4 team relay at London 2012.
From 1984 to 2000, he won 22 athletics medals (with 11 golds) in wheelchair distances from 800m to the marathon. He also has eight Winter Paralympics medals in cross-country skiing.
3 REINHILD MOELLER (GER)
ALPINE SKIING, ATHLETICS
She won 23 medals, including 19 golds in a career that spanned from 1980 in Geilo, Norway, to Torino, Italy, in 2006.
Moeller, who lost half her leg in a farm accident at age three, dominated the winter Paralympics with 19 of her medals coming in slalom, giant slalom, super-G and downhill skiing.
In track, she competed as a sprinter in 1984 in New York and 1988 in Seoul, winning three golds and one silver in the 100m, 200m and 400m.
4 DANIEL DIAS (BRA)
SWIMMING
He claimed three bronze medals in Tokyo, his last Games, to confirm his status as Brazil's most decorated Paralympian with 27 medals, including 14 golds.
Born without hands, his proudest moment came in Rio five years ago, when he collected four gold, three silver and two bronze medals.
5 SARAH STOREY (GBR)
SWIMMING, CYCLING
Born without a functioning left hand, she was 14 when she won two swim golds at Barcelona 1992.
Twenty-nine years, three more swimming titles and 12 cycling golds later, Storey yesterday overtook swimmer Mike Kenny to become Britain's greatest Paralympian at the age of 43.
She switched to cycling at Beijing 2008 and followed her third successive C5 individual pursuit gold on the track at the Izu Velodrome with her third win in a row in the C5 road time trial and C4-5 road race yesterday.
She also won cycling golds in the LC1/LC2/CP4 category time trial and 3km individual pursuit at Beijing and the 500m time trial at London 2012.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
