Marissa
Papaconstantinou

Blade runner Marissa Papaconstantinou heads to the 2024 Paralympic Games with bronze medal performances in the women’s T64 100m at the 2023 Para athletics world championships and 2020 Paralympic Games.

At the Paris worlds she clocked a personal best 12.95 seconds for her first medal at the event in four appearances. At Tokyo 2020 she won Canada’s 20th medal of the Games with a 13.07, also a PB at the time.

Papaconstantinou lived the highs and lows of competitive sport in 2019. Her personal best and Canadian record of 13.15 seconds in the T64 100-m was set in the spring at the Swiss Grand Prix which ranked her third in the world heading into the IPC World Championships.

However the rest of her season was derailed by injury and she did not advance at the 2019 worlds.

She made her Paralympic Games debut at age 16 in Rio. and it was not untypical of a rookie experience. Papaconstantinou ran a personal best 13.65 seconds in the 100 metres, finishing third in her heat.

She made an impressive international debut a year earlier as she finished seventh in the 200m and eighth in the 100m at the 2015 IPC World Championships. Born without her right foot, she’s always participated in sport and enjoys soccer and basketball along with her Para athletics career.

Papacontanstinou took up Para athletics at age 11 at the Phoenix Track Club in Scarborough, Ont., and soon after was fitted with her first running blade.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

2016, 2020 Paralympic Games… 2015, 2017, 2019, 2023 IPC World Championships… 2018 athlete ambassador for Canadian Paralympic Committee’s Paralympian Search…

PERSONAL

RTA Sports Media graduate from Toronto Metropolitan University…. First Canadian female Para athlete to be sponsored by Nike… She was the inspiration for an exhibit on 21st century bionics and prosthetics at Ontario Science Centre…

NOTABLE INTERNATIONAL RESULTS

• 2023 IPC World Championships 100m 3rd
• 2020 Paralympic Games 100m 3rd
• 2017 IPC World Championships 100m 6th
• 2017 IPC World Championships 200m 7th
• 2016 Paralympic Games 100m eliminated in 1st round
• 2016 Paralympic Games 200m eliminated in 1st round