Danielle Dorris of Moncton, New Brunswick won the gold medal in the women’s 50 metre butterfly in the S7 classification at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 on Friday. This is the second medal for Dorris as she previously won the silver medal in the women’s 100 metre backstroke on Monday.
Dorris, who was born with only a portion of her arms, won the gold medal with a World Record time of 32.99 seconds. Mallory Weggemann of the United States won the silver medal with a time of 34.30 seconds. Giulia Terzi of Italy won the bronze medal with a time of 34.32 seconds. Dorris earned a medal by 2.74 seconds over Ani Palian of the Russian Paralympic Committee, who had a fourth-place time of 35.73 seconds. Dorris had the previous World Record of 33.51 seconds, which was set in the preliminary heats.
Meanwhile, Canada won a second medal on Friday. Marissa Papaconstantinou of Scarborough, Ontario, who runs with an artificial leg following a boating accident, had a third-place time of 13.07 seconds in the women’s 100 metres in the T64 classification. Marlene van Gansewinkel of the Netherlands won the gold medal with a time of 12.78 seconds. Irmgard Bensusan of Germany won the silver medal with a time of 12.89 seconds. Papaconstantinou reached the podium by .03 seconds over Fleur Jong of the Netherlands, who had a fourth place time of 13.10 seconds.
Canada has now won 20 Paralympic medals (four gold medals and 10 silver medals and six bronze medals). They are 17th in the overall medal standings.
