Leanne Taylor wins Para triathlon bronze in her Paralympic debut

PARIS — Para triathlon at Paris 2024 was worth waiting for.

The race was postponed to Monday because of water quality in the Seine River, but that didn’t stop Leanne Taylor, who earned a bronze for Canada in the women’s PTWC event.

“It was a really tough day for me,” Taylor shared after her finish. “I wasn’t feeling well coming into the race. So I was really nervous about how hard I was going to be able to push.”

When it came to jumping in the water, however, Taylor dug deep and found her groove, despite her uneasiness heading into the competition.

“I think it’s a lot more to take on than you realize. And you think you’re mentally prepared, but then you get here and you’re like, oh my goodness, this is big.”

She fought hard for her positioning early on, through the swimming portion and stuck to the strategic plan her and her coaches had developed for navigating the river currents.

In the hand cycle section, Taylor remained in good position near the front with a slight lead over Mexico’s Eva María Moral Pedrero. The two remained close throughout the race as they fought for third place.

Taylor’s race quickly became about holding on and finishing strong through the last portion. She had to give everything to stay in front of Pedrero, finishing ahead of her by just seven seconds, and capturing bronze.

“You train for years for this so you want to be able to give everything on the day. When I was on the run, my coach had finally told me that I was in third and I saw which athletes were behind me and what the gap was, and realized all I had to do was hold on,” Taylor shared.

“Coming into the finish chute I was just looking for my husband to let him know we had done it.”

Stefan Daniel, top ranked Canadian Para Triathlon athlete, raced after Taylor in the PTS5 event, but had his hopes of a gold medal drowned after a crash in the bike portion lost him too much time.

Daniel was leading the race up to the third lap of the five lap cycling portion before his devastating topple threw him out of medal contention.

The Calgary native made his third Paralympic Games appearance at Paris 2024. With a silver and bronze from the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 games respectively, Daniel was hoping for a gold in Paris to complete the trifecta.

Despite the painful fall that left him bruised and scraped up, Daniel didn’t give up. Determined to finish what he showed up to do, Daniel got back up, mounted his bike, and finished out the rest of the race with exceptional resilience.

Kamylle Frenette also raced the Para triathlon for Canada in the women’s PTS5 event, finishing fourth.

“I was hoping for the podium, but fourth place in the world is really good,” Frenette said.

She had just watched Daniel crash before her race, so she was a bit emotional and nervous heading into her own cycling portion.

By the time she reached the third leg she felt good about her positioning, and used the last bit of the running section to look around and take in what it means to a Paralympian at Paris 2024.

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