Paris 2024 Day 5 Recap: Nicholas Bennett wins Canada’s first gold medal of the Paralympic Games

– Leanne Taylor and Austin Smeenk add bronze medals in Para triathlon and Para athletics
– Women’s sitting volleyball and men’s wheelchair basketball teams close group stage with victories

Paris, September 2, 2024 – The Canadian national anthem played at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games for the first time on Monday as Para swimmer Nicholas Bennett raced to gold. Two more athletes secured podiums with Leanne Taylor and Austin Smeenk each earning bronze. The Canadian Paralympic Team now holds 11 medals through five days of competition.

MEDALS WON ON SEPTEMBER 2

GOLD – Nicholas Bennett, Para Swimming, Men’s 100m Breaststroke SB14
BRONZE – Leanne Taylor, Para Triathlon, Women’s PTWC
BRONZE – Austin Smeenk, Para Athletics, Men’s T34 100m

OVERALL MEDAL TOTAL

GOLD – 1
SILVER – 4
BRONZE – 6
TOTAL – 11

RESULTS SUMMARY

Para Swimming
Nicholas Bennett was golden in the pool, standing atop the podium in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB14. Third at the turn, Bennett powered to gold in the last 50m, finishing in 1:03.98. The victory gives Canada its first gold medal in Paris; it is also Bennett’s first Paralympic gold. He won a silver medal earlier in the Games. The 20-year-old is competing at his second Paralympic Games.

“Being this young and just being able to throw down, it’s just amazing,” he said. “But this is a long road, so hopefully there’s more to come.”

“My success is my sister’s success and my family,” added Bennett, who is coached by his sister Haley Bennett-Osborne. “So being up there shows that the Bennetts are doing the right thing, and also that I’m able just to show the world that we’re here.”

Also in finals were Sabrina Duchesne, sixth in the women’s 400m freestyle S7; Nicolas-Guy Turbide, seventh in the men’s 50m freestyle S13; and the mixed 4x100m medley relay team of Shelby Newkirk, Fernando Lu, Katie Cosgriffe, and Reid Maxwell who touched the wall in eighth.

In the women’s 50m backstroke S3, Nikita Ens and Aly Van Wyck-Smart raced in the morning heats but did not advance to the final.

Para Triathlon
Leanne Taylor became the first Canadian woman to earn a medal in Para triathlon, capturing bronze in her debut Paralympic appearance. Taylor, competing in the PTWC (wheelchair) classification, was fourth after the bike portion but pushed to third during the run. She finished in 1:12:11.

“This is amazing. I don’t think it has really set in yet,” said Taylor. “It was a really tough day for me. I wasn’t feeling well coming into the race. I think I maybe had my first Games kind of nerves. This is a lot more to take on than you realize. You think you are mentally prepared and then you get here and are like ‘oh my goodness, this is big!”

“I was really nervous about how hard I was going to be able to push. You train for years for this, so you want to be able to give everything on the day.”

Kamylle Frenette was fourth in the women’s PTS5 race, finishing three minutes behind the podium finish, while Stefan Daniel was 10^th in the men’s PTS5 category. Daniel, a five-time world champion and two-time Paralympic medallist, was leading partway through the bike portion of the race but unfortunately crashed. He was able to get back on his bike and finish the race.

Para Athletics
Austin Smeenk, competing at his third Paralympic Games, won his first career medal on Monday – a bronze in the men’s T34 100m final. He raced to the third podium spot in 16.19, just 0.05 off the silver medallist. The winner, Thailand’s Chaiwat Rattana, set a new Paralympic record of 14.76 seconds.

“I’m satisfied with the result of today being that I got on the podium for the first time at the Paralympics, but I think that there’s still room to grow,” said Smeenk. “There’s two more steps to climb on that podium, so I’m going to see what I can accomplish in the rest of the week with the remaining events I have.”

In the men’s T54 1500m heats, Brent Lakatos – a silver medallist a day ago – finished eighth and will not advance into the final.

Wheelchair Basketball
The Canadian men’s wheelchair basketball team concluded preliminary play on a high, besting Germany 68-52. Patrick Anderson led the score sheet with 17 points, with Colin Higgins and Paralympic rookie Reed De’Aeth adding 14 apiece. With a final record of 2-1, the squad finished second in their group. The quarterfinals take place Tuesday.

Sitting Volleyball
Canada’s women’s sitting volleyball team is advancing into the semifinals after defeating Rwanda 3-0 to wrap up the group stage. With a 2-1 record, the team finishes second in Pool B behind Brazil; the top two nations in both pools move into the semifinals scheduled for Thursday. This matches the team’s best-ever Paralympic result so far. Canada was fourth at the Tokyo 2020 Games where they reached the medal matches for the first time.

“It kind of was ugly volleyball for us, and that’s okay,” said team member Sarah Melenka. “I was sitting out there on the court, and I’m just like, this moment only happens every four years, and just embrace every single ball that comes over, no matter what.

“And we weren’t playing our best. They throw balls back at us that we couldn’t even imagine to come back at us, so it was a tough match. We had to grind it out, but we got the job done.”

Wheelchair Rugby
Canada’s wheelchair rugby team will go home with a sixth-place finish following a 53-50 loss to France in the fifth-place playoff game. The squad ends one spot shy of their result at the Tokyo 2020 Games.

Wheelchair Tennis
Rob Shaw was eliminated from the wheelchair tennis quad tournament, dropping a 6-0, 6-0 decision to world No. 2 Niels Vink of Netherlands. It was Shaw’s first Paralympic quarterfinal appearance.

CLICK HERE for the complete results on Monday September 2.

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