Great start, strong finish propels Aurélie Rivard to fifth medal at Tokyo 2020

Aurélie Rivard produced a great start and a strong finish to win her fifth medal at the Tokyo Paralympic Games on Thursday with a silver in the women’s 100m backstroke S10.

It was her 10th career medal in three Games appearances.

Bianka Pap of Hungary won gold in one minute and 06.70 seconds. Rivard, who emerged first from the underwater start but was fifth at the turn, roared to the finish in 1:08.94. Lisa Kruger of the Netherlands was third in 1:09.44.

So far in Tokyo, the 25-year-old Rivard has also collected gold in the 100m freestyle and 400m freestyle and bronze in the 50m freestyle and 4x100m freestyle relay. The St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. native is scheduled to race the 200m individual medley on Friday.

It was Canada’s 17th medal at the Games (three gold, nine silver and five bronze) and the seventh in the pool.