Paris 2024 Paralympics Day 3: Canada add a pair of silver medals in the pool
Nicholas Bennett and Tess Routliffe reach the podium in Paris.
Canada added two more medals to their tally on Day 3 of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games on Saturday, picking up a pair of silver medals in the pool.
Nicholas Bennett won Canada’s first of the day, and first of his Paralympic career, finishing second in the men’s 200m freestyle S14. After advancing from the morning heats with the fastest time, Bennett ended up finishing second behind British swimmer William Ellard, who broke his own world record and finished in 1:51.30.
Bennett was second in 1:53.61, just touching the wall ahead of Australian swimmer Jack Ireland who took the bronze in an Oceania record 1:53.77. Bennett is the reigning world champion in this event, but it was Ellard adding a gold medal to his collection after taking silver in the 100m butterfly earlier in the week.
That wasn’t it from the pool for Canada.
Tess Routliffe added Canada’s second silver medal of the day at La Défense Arena, finishing second in the women’s 200m individual medley SM7 in a time of 2:57.17. That was about four seconds back of American gold medallist Mallory Weggemann, who led for the entirety of the race and set a new Paralympic record of 2:53.29.
Routliffe won a silver medal in this event at the Rio 2016 Paralympics as well, but missed out on Tokyo 2020 after breaking her spine while weight training. She is also the reigning world champion in the event.
Danielle Dorris was in a good position to make it a double podium for Canada after she too qualified for the final and was sitting in third after 150m, but faded on the final length of the pool and ended up in sixth. The bronze medallist was Julia Gaffney, also of the United States, who finished four seconds back of Routliffe.
Reid Maxwell was the only other Canadian swimmer in action on Saturday, finishing fifth in his heat in the first round of the men’s 100m backstroke S8 and not qualifying for the evening’s final.
At the velodrome, Mel Pemble set a new world record for C3 athletes in the qualifying for the women’s C1-3 500m time trial event — racing around the track in a time of 38.512 seconds. In the finals, the 24-year-old finished in 38.610 seconds, missing the bronze medal by 0.3 seconds.
"It’s pretty cool to come here and realize I'm at my second Games,” said Pemble, who previously competed at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Para alpine skiing. “It felt more real coming into these Games with medal potential. The world record is going to make that fourth place sting a little less in the end, but I think it’s going to take a little while for me to get over that.
“I’m very happy with my times, I got a personal best by a second which is more than could hope for, but it would have been amazing to win a medal, it just wasn’t in the cards this year.”
Two Canadians competed in the morning Para athletics finals. Ashlyn Renneberg finished seventh in the women’s F13 javelin final with a best throw of 30.93 metres, and Guillaume Ouellet finished fifth the men’s T13 5000m final. For Ouellet it is the third Paralympics in the row where he has finished in the top five but just missed out on the podium.
In the evening session at Stade de France, three Canadians were in their respective finals. Keegan Gaunt finished ninth in the women’s 1500m T13 final, before Brent Lakatos finished seventh in an incredibly close men’s 5000m T54 final, after a remarkable sprint to the finish where he just ran out of gas in the final stretch. Amanda Rummery was the last Canadian on the track in the evening session, finishing fifth in the women’s 400m T13 event.
It was a day of mixed success for Canada’s wheelchair basketball teams, who both played against Great Britain in the second matches of their preliminary round group stages. The women’s team won their game 63-54, with Arinn Young and Cindy Ouellet dropping 26 and 19 points, respectively. The men’s team were outclassed in their match against the British, losing 88-58. Both teams are now 1-1 in their tournaments with one game left in the preliminary round.
Canada were eliminated from medal contention in the wheelchair rugby competition, losing a tight game 50-46 against Japan, with Zak Madell scoring 27 of Canada’s points. Canada will still compete in the placing playoffs to determine the final positioning for the four teams that were eliminated in the group stage, and can match their fifth-place finish from Tokyo 2020.
Canada’s women’s sitting volleyball team lost their second group stage match, beaten in four sets by Brazil. After dropping the first two sets, Canada battled back in the third, but Brazil bounced back in the fourth to take the win. Canada sit second in the group with a 1-1 record.
Rob Shaw picked up a victory in the first round of the men’s singles quad wheelchair tennis competition, beating Brazilian player Ymanitu Silva to advance to the quarterfinals where he will take on recent Wimbledon champion Niels Vink.
Two Canadians — Alison Levine and Iulian Ciobanu — were both eliminated from their respective BC4 boccia events on Saturday. Levine lost to Colombian world number one Leidy Chica Chica in her quarterfinal match, while Ciobanu won his final preliminary round match against Great Britain’s Stephen McGuire in the men’s event to improve to a 2-1 record, but it wasn’t enough to get him into the knockout rounds. Levine and Ciobanu will team up in the pairs event later in the Games.
In Para rowing, Jacob Wassermann finished fourth in his repechage heat in the PR1 men’s single sculls event, missing out on the medal race on Sunday. He will race in the B final on Sunday to determine his final ranking.
Yuka Chokyu was eliminated from the women’s singles WH1 para badminton competition, losing 21-8, 21-6 to Thailand’s gold medal threat Sujirat Pookkham to end the tournament with an 0-3 record.
What’s happening on Day 4?
Below are all of the Canadian athletes competing on Sunday. Click here for CBC’s guide on when and where to watch every Paralympic event.
Leanne Taylor will be the first Canadian competing on Day 4, doing so in the women’s PTWC triathlon. Later in the day the men’s and women’s PTS5 triathlons take place, where Canada will be represented by Stefan Daniel and Kamylle Frenette. Daniel is ranked first in the world in his classification, and reached the podium at both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, while Frenette and Taylor are ranked second and fourth in their classifications.
Five Canadians will be competing in the pool on Day 4, across three events. Aurélie Rivard and Arianna Hunsicker race in the heats of the women’s 100m freestyle S10, Alec Elliot and Fernando Lu do the same in the men’s event in the same classification, and Reid Maxwell races in the heats of the men’s 200m individual medley SM8. The finals for all three events are in the evening. Rivard, who won a bronze medal on Day 1 of Paris 2024, is the back-to-back defending champion in this event, and set the current world and Paralympic record in it at Tokyo 2020.
Brent Lakatos competes in his second Para athletics event of Paris 2024, racing in the men’s 400m heats in the morning, looking to qualify for the final in the evening and build on the silver medals he won in this event at London 2012 and Tokyo 2020. Also chasing a medal is Julia Hanes, who will make her Paralympic debut in the women’s javelin throw F34 final in the evening session.
Kyle Tremblay will take on Austria’s Michael Meier in the 1/8 elimination final of the men’s compound open Para archery event. The winner advances to the quarterfinals, and will have a chance to compete for a medal later in the day if they are able to keep moving through the competition.
Canadian athletes competing in non-medal events on day 4:
Austin Smeenk races in the first round of the men’s 100m event in the T34 classification, looking to reach the final on Monday. He won a silver medal in the event at the 2023 world championships and is one of the favourites to take gold this time around.
The Canadian women’s wheelchair basketball team finishes group stage action against Spain. Every team is guaranteed a spot in the quarterfinals, but Canada will be hoping to pick up a victory to get a better spot in the bracket for the knockout rounds.
Peter Isherwood will become the first Canadian to compete in the wheelchair classification in Para table tennis at the Paralympics, up against Poland’s Tomasz Jakimczuk in the men’s Class 2 round of 32.
Second place in Pool A is up for grabs when Canada’s women’s goalball team take on South Korea in their final group stage match before the quarterfinals.
Jacob Wassermann will race in the B final of the PR1 men’s single sculls competition to determine final ranking for the athletes that missed out on the medal race.
The Canadian wheelchair rugby team plays the first match of their placing playoffs, taking on Denmark. The winner will play for fifth place on Monday, and the loser will play either France or Germany for seventh.
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