Paris 2024 Paralympics Day 6: Cody Fournie golden on the track, Katie Cosgriffe picks up bronze in the pool
Canada strikes gold for the second day in a row.
A Canadian reached the top step of the podium for the second day in a row at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games on Tuesday, as part of a two-medal day for the country.
Cody Fournie’s first race at the Paralympics was one to remember in the morning athletics session at Stade de France, winning a gold medal in the men's 200m T51 event. Fournie bolted down the track in 37.64 seconds, setting a new personal best en route to the top of the podium.
Fournie was formerly a competitive wheelchair rugby player, but transitioned to Para athletics during the pandemic.
“The transition from rugby to racing helped because I was putting so much time and effort into training, that coming over to racing wasn't that difficult, because I was so used to training already,” Fournie said. “What was the most difficult part about racing was getting this chair figured out with not having any stomach muscles. I had to learn how to use my head to change the direction of the chair, and that took quite a while to figure out. But again, all that hard work has paid off.”
Four other Canadians reached Para athletics finals on Tuesday, and came close to adding to Canada's medal haul. Marissa Papaconstantinou finished fourth in the women’s 200m T64, Sheriauna Haase was fourth in the women's 100m T47, and Zach Gingras was fifth in the men’s 400m T38.
Bianca Borgella’s women’s 100m T13 final came to an unfortunate end when she fell to the track with a leg injury. She was able to get up and cross the finish line, and the severity of her injury is not yet known.
Another Canadian Paralympic debutant won her first medal on Tuesday, as swimmer Katie Cosgriffe took bronze in the women’s 100m butterfly S10. The 18-year-old finished in a time of 1:07.22, just 13 hundredths of a second faster than the fourth-place finisher in a tight finish.
“I have improved a lot over the last couple of years, and I have had this in my mind for a while; I knew this was always a possibility, but I didn't see it actually happening,” said Cosgriffe. “And the fact that now it's real, I'm just really happy with how it went. I'm not overjoyed with my time, but I can't really complain about that, because I won a medal, so I'm happy about it.”
Also in the pool, Mary Jibb finished fifth in the women’s 100m backstroke S9, Sebastian Massabie was sixth in the men’s 200m freestyle S4, and Alec Elliot was eighth in the men’s 100m butterfly S10. Fernando Lu also raced in the latter event but didn’t advance from the morning’s heats. Also eliminated in the heats were Nikita Ens and Aly Van Wyck-Smart in the women’s 100m freestyle S3 event.
Canada confirmed on Tuesday that they will play for a men’s wheelchair basketball medal of some kind later this week after winning their quarterfinal matchup with the Netherlands by a score of 79-67. The legendary Patrick Anderson continued to put up big numbers at his final Paralympics, dropping a team-high 20 points as Canada move on to play the United States in the semis.
Alison Levine and Iulian Ciobanu won both of their BC4 pairs boccia preliminary round matches on Tuesday, beating China 8-5 with a comeback victory after being down 5-0 halfway through the match. In their second match of the day they beat Croatia 6-4, securing top spot in their group and a place in the quarterfinals.
It was a less successful day for Canada in the women’s goalball tournament, as they were eliminated from medal contention with a 5-1 loss to Israel. Amy Burk scored the lone goal for Canada, temporarily reducing Israel’s lead to 3-1 early in the second half, but the team was not able to cut the gap any further. They will play one more match in Paris to determine their final rankings.
Three Canadian wheelchair fencers competed in their respective sabre events on Tuesday. Ryan Rousell was the Canadian that progressed the furthest, losing his table of 16 match in the men’s A category, but winning the first repechage match to advance. He then lost the second repechage match to end his competition. Trinity Lowthian lost both her table of 16 match and her repechage match in the women’s B category, while Ruth Sylvie Morel lost her opening match in the table of 32 of the women’s A category and did not advance.
Chateau de Versailles was the site of the first day of Para equestrian competition, with three Canadian athlete-horse duos in action. Roberta Sheffield and horse Fairuza finished sixth in the individual Grade II event, qualifying themselves for the individual freestyle discipline on Saturday. Austen Burns and Happy Feet 3 were 12th and Jody Schloss and El Colorado were 17th in the Grade I event.
What’s happening on Day 7?
Below are all of the Canadian athletes competing on Wednesday. Click here for CBC’s guide on when and where to watch every Paralympic event.
Six Canadian Para cyclists will compete in road time trial events on Wednesday, including Paris 2024 track cycling bronze medallists Kate O’Brien, Keely Shaw and Alexandre Hayward. O’Brien and Shaw will race in the women’s C4 classification, while Hayward will go in the men’s C3. Mel Pemble races in the women’s C3, Nathan Clement competes in the men’s T1-2 classification, and Charles Moreau — who won two cycling medals at Rio 2016 — does the same in the men’s H3 event.
With gold and silver medals already on his Paris 2024 resume, Nicholas Bennett dives into the pool again on Wednesday, in the men’s 200m individual medley SM14 event in which he was the 2023 world champion. Philippe Vachon and Reid Maxwell race in the men’s 400m freestyle S8 event, Abi Tripp races the women’s 400m freestyle S8, and Mary Jibb competes in the women’s 100m freestyle S9. Shelby Newkirk, Tess Routliffe, and Sabrina Duchesne all race in the women’s 100m freestyle S7 heats. Routliffe already has a medal at these Games as well, silver in the women’s 200m individual medley SM7 on Saturday.
The finals for all eight swimmers would be on Wednesday evening, should they advance from the morning session.
Reigning Paralympic champion in the men’s shot put F46, Greg Stewart, looks to defend his crown on Wednesday. Charlotte Bolton competes in the final of the women’s discus F41, and Katie Pegg will make her Paralympic debut in the women’s shot put F46.
Canadian athletes competing in non-medal events on day 7:
After winning both of their preliminary round matches on Tuesday in the pairs BC4 boccia competition, Alison Levine and Iulian Ciobanu compete in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, against Ukraine. The winner moves onto the semifinals later in the day.
Canada plays Germany in the women’s wheelchair basketball quarterfinals, looking to follow the Canadian men’s team in reaching the semifinals and getting the chance to play for a medal.
The Canadian women’s goalball team’s tournament comes to an end, as they take on Japan in a placement match. The winner finishes fifth in the tournament, and the loser ends in sixth.
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