Rivard swims to second gold
Canadian swimmer drawing comparisons to Olympian Oleksiak after third medal
RIO DI JANIERO, BRAZIL— Canadian swimmer Aurelie Rivard added another Paralympic gold medal to the collection she’s carefully stashing out of sight in her suitcase.
The 20-year-old from Saint-Jeansur-Richelieu, Que., won the 100metre freestyle on Tuesday, her third medal of the Rio Paralympics, and second gold. Then she planned to tuck it away to savour later.
“Because even if I win, my meet is not done, I still have three races to go,” Rivard said. “So I really just want to focus as much as I can on my races and after that, I’m going to think about the medals and what I accomplished.
“Once my meet is over, this is when I’m going to start to realize this happened.”
Rivard led virtually from the moment she touched the water, finishing in 59.31 seconds — the only negative on an otherwise brilliant night for the young Canadian.
“I wanted the gold and I got it,” she said. “But I’m a little disappointed in my own performance. I own the world record (of 59.17), so of course I wanted to break my own time, wanted to improve myself.”
She edged New Zealand rival Sophie Pascoe, who touched second in 59.85 then leaned over the lane rope to wrap the Canadian in a long hug.
Rivard’s was one of two medals on the night for the swim team. Tess Routliffe of Caledon, Ont., captured a silver in the women’s 200 individual medley. Nikita Howarth of New Zealand won the gold in 2:57.29, while Routliffe, who was born with hypochondroplasia dwarfism, finished in 3:02.05.
Rivard, who was born without a left hand, claimed Canada’s first gold medal of the Games when she won the 50 freestyle in a world record time. She added a silver in the 200 individual medley two nights later.
Her Paralympic performance is reminiscent of Penny Oleksiak, the 16-year-old who won gold in the same event at last month’s Olympics, part of a four-medal performance.
“That parallel has been drawn, and I can see why,” said Carla Qualtrough, Canada’s new sport minister and a Paralympic swimming medallist. “Aurelie is a wonderful ambassador, and she’s the future.”
Table tennis player Stephanie Chan of Richmond, B.C., lost the bronzemedal match in the women’s class 7 to Seong-Ok Kim of South Korea 12-14, 11-7, 11-7, 11-8. Chan was the first Canadian to play for a medal at the modern Paralympics in table tennis.