New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Fairfield grad Young wins second medal
Colleen Young, a 2020 Fairfield graduate and one of the Stags’ former top swimmers, concluded her time in Tokyo by winning the bronze medal in the 100-meter SB13 breaststroke final with a time of one minute, 15.69 seconds. Young’s bronze comes two days after she won the silver in the 200m SM13 Individual Medley and is her third career Paralympic medal after winning bronze during the 2016 Summer Games in the 100m breaststroke.
“Gold is the ultimate goal, but I am really proud of myself and happy that I was able to follow my execution and be able to get back on the podium,” Young said following the final. “I’m blown away by how well
I’ve done. I wouldn’t be here without my family, my teammates and my coaches. It’s been a grueling five years but coming away with silver and bronze medals is incredible. It’s more than I hoped for.”
Swimming in lane three of the 100m SB13 Breaststroke final on Wednesday, Young got off to a quick start and immediately challenged Great Britain’s Rebecca Redfern and Germany’s Elena Krawzow for the lead. The three were almost
even with each other before Young began to fall back into third around the 40meter mark.
Young was the third swimmer to hit the 50-meter turn (35.36) and was less than a second behind Krawzow, who reached the turn in second place. In the final 50 meters, Young wasn’t able to pick up speed and settled into third, while Krawzow passed Redfern in the final 10 meters to claim gold in 1:13.46. Redfern won silver in 1:14.10.
Young advanced to the 100m SB13 breaststroke final after finishing second in heat two of the event’s
prelims in 1:16.40, earning the third overall seed in the final.
During the prelim, Young, swimming in lane five, had the best start of heat two. She quickly swam into the lead spot around the 20-meter mark and was the first swimmer to reach the 50-meter turn at 35.62. However, Krawzow challenged Young for the lead heading into the turn and reached the halfway point just 0.1 seconds behind Young. It was Krawzow’s kick in the final 20 meters that pushed her ahead of Young to win the heat in 1:15.31, while Young finished in second.
The 23-year-old won her first medal of the 2020 Paralympics on Monday, winning the silver medal in the 200-meter SM13 Individual Medley with a time of 2:26.80.
In her collegiate career, the St. Louis, Missouri native set eight Fairfield records and was a seventime MAAC Champion. At the 2012 Paralympics in London, Young became the youngest U.S. athlete at age 14 to compete in the Summer Games.
2020 PARALYMPIC RESULTS
100m SB13 breaststroke: won bronze in 1:15.69 // finished the prelims third overall in 1:16.40.
200m SM13 individual medley: won silver in 2:26.80 // finished the prelims second overall in 2:29.61.
50m S13 freestyle: finished the prelims 20th overall in 29.21.
100 S13 backstroke: finished eighth in the final in 1:09.89 // finished the prelims seventh overall in 1:09.39.