Also known as the "armless swimmer", Zheng Tao impressed at the Paralympics by clinching a gold medal in the men's 50M butterfly S5 with a time of 30.62 Seconds. Not only that, Zheng also went on to smash his own backstroke world record to clinch yet another gold medal.
The Chinese sensation now holds a staggering record of 8 Paralympic medals through his superhuman performances. "I didn’t win on my first try at the London 2012 Games, or my second try in Rio 2016," he said. "I always lost out by just a few fractions of a second. Now I’ve finally done it. This was the gold medal I wanted the most.”
As a child, Zhen lost his arms due to an electric shock but soon took up swimming in 2004. In 2010, the 30 year old made his international swimming debut representing China at the World Championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
Zheng competed in his first Paralympic Games at the 2012 London Paralympics, where he won the gold medal in a close race in the 100m backstroke S6 final. In 2016 at the Rio games, the paralympian suffered a lower back injury but still won the gold medal at the Men's 100 metre backstroke S6 event with a world record of 1:10.84, two seconds faster than the previous record, he set in 2015.