The US doesn’t dominate the Paralympics as it does the Olympics. Does it matter?

Team USA finished third in the medal table at the Paralympics. Photograph: Ümit Bektaş/Reuters

For Team USA, the Paralympics took a parallel course to the Olympics.

In the first few days, successes seemed astonishingly rare. Swimmers were taking a few silver medals, but not much gold, and it appeared that the team may have evolved from “experienced” to “aging.”