PARALYMPIC GOLDEN GIRL

Rivard wins third medal in pool

Aurelie Rivard is having her moment, which is starting to look an awful lot like Penny Oleksiak’s moment. And that’s a fine act to follow.

Just as Oleksiak made Canada’s biggest splash in the Olympic pool, Rivard has been a one-woman medal machine at these Paralympics. She led from wire-to-wire and, for the second time in this swim meet, fought off her hardcharging rival from New Zealand, Sophie Pascoe. Rivard, 20, touched the wall in 59.31 seconds to win the S10 100-metre freestyle in Paralympic record time. Pascoe was home at 59.85.

It was Rivard’s second gold medal of the meet and with a silver in the bag, her third overall. She won the 50-metre freestyle and finished second in the 200-metre Individual Medley prior to Tuesday’s action. And she’s not done yet. She still has to swim the 400-metre freestyle, her big event as she calls it. It’s the final individual race for her before she swims in two relays.

The 20-year-old who was born without a left hand could head back home to St-Jean- Sur-Richelieu, Que., with a medal total comparable to the 16-yearold Oleksiak, who returned from the Olympics to Toronto with four, but only after carrying the flag at the closing ceremony. Rivard is the runaway leader to get that honour here now.

“Of course, her performances were really inspiring for us,” Rivard said of Oleksiak. “We were watching them on TV when we were in staging camp.”

And the 20-year-old Rivard hopes the inspiration level will be the same.

“That’s what I want to do, actually. If I can just inspire young kids, disabled or not, young athletes just to achieve their goals and really reach for their dreams, I’m really happy about that.”

Rivard’s focus remains rock-solid. She won’t even look at her growing collection of medals in her room at the athletes village.

“I already hide them in my suitcase so I don’t see my medals at all when I’m at the village.”