Paralympic newsletter: 2 Canadian stars win gold, and what to watch Friday
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The most decorated Canadian athletes in the Paris Games added to their huge medal collections today as swimmer Aurélie Rivard and wheelchair track racer Brent Lakatos each captured gold for their 13th career Paralympic medal.
Rivard won the women’s S10 400m freestyle title for the third consecutive time, giving her six Paralympic golds and a medal of each colour in Paris. She’ll go for her fourth podium of the Games in Friday’s 100m backstroke, which is her final event.
Not long after Rivard’s victory, Lakatos kept pace by winning the men’s T53 800m for his first Paralympic gold since he took the 100m title in 2016. This was the final race in Paris for Lakatos, who earned a silver in the 400m last week and missed the podium in his other two events. The 44-year-old wouldn’t say whether he’ll return for his seventh Paralympics in 2028 in Los Angeles.
Also today, Tess Routliffe took bronze in the women’s SB7 100m breaststroke for her second medal of the Games. Canada’s Para swimmers have won 10 medals in Paris — two more than their total from the 2021 Games in Tokyo.
With eight days of competition in the books and three still to come, Canada has won 20 medals — six gold, six silver and eight bronze. That’s just one short of the total from Tokyo. Here’s the full medal table.
Other key Canadian results:
* The Canadian men’s wheelchair basketball team hung tough in the first half before losing its semifinal 80-43 to the reigning Paralympic and world champion United States. Canada will play Germany for the bronze on Saturday while the U.S. faces Great Britain for the gold.
* Canada’s women’s sitting volleyball team also lost its semifinal, falling in straight sets to China. The Canadians can still win their country’s first Paralympic medal in this sport when they face Brazil for the bronze on Saturday.
* 2021 Paralympic flag-bearer Priscilla Gagné made it to the bronze bout in the women’s 57kg J1 judo tournament but lost 11-1 to her Argentine opponent. Gagné took silver in the 52kg division in Tokyo before moving up to the heavier weight class.
* The second-ranked mixed pairs boccia team of Alison Levine and Iulian Ciobanu lost their bronze game 6-1 to Thailand. Levine and Ciobanu also missed the podium in their individual events.
Here’s a roundup of today’s Canadian performances.
WATCH | Lakatos wins 2nd Paralympic title:
Eight years after winning his first career Paralympic gold medal, 12-time world champion Brent Lakatos of Dorval, Que., won the men’s 800-metre T53 race in Paris to claim his second-career Paralympic gold medal.
Canadian medal chances coming up on Friday
Here are some top names to watch, in chronological order:
Road cycling: Keely Shaw in the women’s C4-5 road race at 3:35 a.m. ET. Shaw is vying for her second medal of the Games after grabbing a bronze in track cycling last week and finishing fifth in the road time trial on Wednesday. She took bronze in the C4 road race at the 2022 world championships (C4 denotes a more severe disability than C5).
Swimming: Aurélie Rivard and Katie Cosgriffe in the women’s 100m backstroke S10 final at 12:12 p.m. ET. Assuming she gets through the morning heats, Rivard will go for her fourth medal of the Games and the 14th of her Paralympic career. She took silver in this event in 2021 in Tokyo, where she reached the podium five times. Cosgriffe, 18, is trying for her second medal in Paris after earning bronze in the 100m butterfly. A third Canadian, Arianna Hunsicker, is also entered in the heats.
Swimming: Nicholas Bennett in the men’s 100m backstroke S14 final at 1:04 p.m. ET. If he advances from the morning heats, the 20-year-old rising star will go for his fourth medal of the Games. Bennett won the 100m breaststroke and the 200m individual medley to become the first Canadian man in 20 years to capture multiple swimming gold medals at a single Paralympic Games, and added a silver in the 200m freestyle. Bennett won a total of five medals at the past two world championships but did not reach a backstroke podium.
Track and field: Marissa Papaconstantinou in the women’s T64 100m final at 1:11 p.m. ET. The 24-year-old blade runner took bronze in this event at the 2021 Paralympics and at last year’s world championships in Paris. But she barely got through qualifying today, grabbing the eighth and final spot in the medal race. Papaconstantinou finished fourth in the 200m on Tuesday.
Swimming: Reid Maxwell in the men’s 100m freestyle S8 final at 2:33 p.m. ET. After celebrating his 17th birthday on Monday, Maxwell took silver in Wednesday’s 400m freestyle to become the youngest Canadian swimmer to win a Paralympic medal since Rivard did it as a 16-year-old in 2012. He must get through the morning heats to reach the final.
Track and field: Cody Fournie in the men’s 100m T51 final at 3:09 p.m. ET. After switching from the national wheelchair rugby team to wheelchair racing a few years ago, Fournie won gold in the 200m on Tuesday in his first Paralympic track event. The 35-year-old should contend again in the 100m after taking silver at this year’s world championships. Canada also has a medal hopeful in the men’s 100m T52 final at 5:38 a.m. ET after Anthony Bouchard posted the fourth-fastest overall time in qualifying today.
Other Canadians to watch
* The Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team takes on the defending champion Netherlands in the semifinals at 3:30 p.m. ET. The Dutch are also the reigning back-to-back world champions, while Canada placed fifth at the past two Paralympics and at the most recent world championships. Canadian star Kady Dandeneau was sensational again in the quarterfinals, scoring 33 points and grabbing 16 rebounds in a 71-53 win over Germany.
WATCH | Setting up Day 9 on CBC Sports’ Rise and Stream:
There will be a lot of action on the track and in the field at Stade de France on Day 9, with first time Paralympian Jesse Zesseu in the men’s discus throw F37 final and Marissa Papaconstantinou in the women’s 100m T64 final. And Brianna Hennessy begins her Para canoe/kayak journey. Watch it all on CBC Gem.
How to watch the Paralympics
Go here to choose the live events you want to watch and find replays and highlights. See the full streaming schedule here.
You can also catch the action in Paris via three daily live shows on the CBC TV network, CBC Gem and CBC Sports’ Paris 2024 website and app. There’s Petro-Canada Paris Prime, hosted by Scott Russell, at 2 p.m. ET; Toyota Paralympic Games Primetime, hosted by Russell and Stef Reid, at 8 p.m. in your local time zone; and Canadian Tire Paralympics Tonight, hosted by Devin Heroux and Roseline Filion, at 11:30 p.m. local.
Digital coverage will also include daily episodes of Rise and Stream, highlighting the must-see events and Canadians to follow, and Hot Takes, featuring interviews with athletes and analysts. Both shows are available on the Paris 2024 site and on CBC Sports’ YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram and X. Here’s more on CBC’s Paralympics coverage.
